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YALE 


LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 


BY 


HENRY  WARD   BEECHER. 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  THEOLOGICAL  DEPARTMENT  OF  YALE 

COLLEGE,  NEW   HAVEN',  CONN.,  AS  THE  FIRST  SERIES  IN 

THE  REGULAR  COURSE  OF  THE  "  LYMAN  BEECHEE 

LECTURESHIP  ON  PREACHING." 


FROM  PHONOGRAPHIC  REPORTS. 


NEW  YORK: 
J.  B.    FORD   AND   COMPANY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 

BY   J.    B.   FORD   AND   COMPANY, 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS  :  WELCH,  BIGELOW,  &  Co., 
CAMBRIDGE. 


Stack 
Annex 

3V 


PUBLISHEES'    NOTICE. 

ABOUT  thirty-five  years  ago  Mr.  Beecher  grouped  his  "Six 
Lectures  to  Young  Men  "  and  allowed  them  to  be  published  for 
the  benefit  of  a  young  friend  who  was  about  beginning  busi- 
ness; and  although  more  than  fifty  thousand  copies  of  that  book 
have  been  printed,  until  recently  it  brought  no  income  to  its 
author.  Since  that  time,  in  one  way  and  another,  various  books 
from  Mr.  Beecher's  pen  have  been  issued  by  different  publishers, 
and,  -while  welcomed  by  the  reading  public,  have  been  treated 
by  their  author  with  more  or  less  indifference.  The  "  Lectures 
to  Young  Men,"  two  series  of  "  Star  Papers,"  "  Fruit,  Flowers, 
and  Farming,"  "  Eyes  and  Ears,"  "  Royal  Truths,"  "  Norwood," 
"  Lecture-Room  Talks,"  and  other  works,  are  widely  known,  but 
have  hitherto  been  printed  in  different  cities,  in  varying  styles, 
by  separate  houses. 

The  undersigned,  having  in  hand  the  publication  of  the  regular 
authorized  weekly  reports  of  Mr.  Beecher's  Sermons  (issued  thus 
far  in  six  uniform  octavo  volumes),  and  of  his  most  elaborate  and 
important  literary  work,  the  "  Life  of  Jesus  the  Christ,"  have 
thought  it  due  to  him  that  his  works  should  be  gathered  together 
by  them,  and  as  many  as  could  conveniently  be  put  forth  in  the 
size  and  style  of  the  present  book  should  be  issued  in  a  "  Uni- 
form Author's  Copyright  Edition" 

In  pursuance  of  this  design,  the  "  Lectures  on  Preaching  "  are 
herewith  presented  to  the  public,  to  be  followed  at  brief  intervals 
by  others  of  Mr.  Beecher's  works. 

J.  B.  FORD  &  CO.,  Publishers. 
NEW  YORK,  June,  1872. 


LETTEE. 

THEOLOGICAL  DEPARTMENT,  YALE  COLLEGE, 

Feb.  23,  1872. 
REV.  HENRY  "WARD  BEECHER. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  Allow  us  to  express  our  high  estimation  of  the 
Lectures  on  Preaching  given  by  you  in  the  Marquand  Chapel  to 
the  students  of  this  Department.  We  value  them  for  the  views 
which  they  give  of  eloquence  in  general,  and  of  that  eloquence 
in  particular  which  seeks  to  save  men  by  the  exposition  and  appli- 
cation of  the  gospel.  We  value  them  for  their  stimulating  and 
inspiring  effect  on  the  hearers,  and  for  the  high  ideal  which  they 
hold  up  before  ministers  and  students  for  the  ministry.  We  can- 
not but  hope  that  in  some  form  of  publication  they  will  have  a 
wider  usefulness,  not  only  among  students  preparing  for  the  min- 
istry, but  among  preachers  of  the  gospel  in  all  the  churches.  It 
is  with  great  satisfaction  that  we  look  forward  to  the  enjoyment 
of  other  courses  from  you  in  successive  years. 

The  Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship  which  was  founded  by  your 
parishioner,  Mr.  Sage,  and  of  which  you  are  so  fitly  the  incum- 
bent, promises  to  exceed  in  usefulness  our  highest  expectations. 

Yours  truly, 

LEONARD  BACON, 
(Lecturer  on  Church  Polity,  etc.) 

SAMUEL  HARRIS, 
(Prof,  of  Systematic  Theology.) 

GEORGE  E.  DAY, 
(Prof,  of  Hebrew  and  Biblical  Theology.) 

JAMES  M.  HOPP1X, 
(Prof,  of  Homiletics  and  the  Pastoral  Charge.) 

GEORGE  P.    FISHER, 
(Prof,  of  Ecclesiastical  History.) 

TIMOTHY  DWIGHT, 
(Prof,  of  Sacred  Literature.) 


PEEFACE 


Conn. 


1871,  Mr.  Henry  W.  Sage,  of  Brooklyn, 
Xew  York,  contributed  the  funds  necessary 
to  found  a  Lectureship  on  Preaching  in  the 
Divinity  School  at  Yale  College,  New  Haven, 
In  honor  of  my  father,  it  was  styled  the  LYMAN 
BEECHER  LECTURESHIP  ON  PREACHING.  As  this  title 
implies,  it  was  the  design  of  the  donor  and  of  the 
Theological  Faculty  to  secure  a  more  perfect  prepara- 
tion of  young  men  for  preaching,  as  the  highest  act 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  by  providing  for  them,  in 
addition  to  their  general  and  professional  studies,  a 
course  of  practical  instruction  in  the  art  of  preaching, 
to  be  given  by  those  actively  engaged  in  the  practice 
of  it.  At  the  request  of  both  the  Founder  and  the 
Theological  Faculty,  I  consented  to  serve  as  Lecturer 
in  this  course  for  three  consecutive  years. 

Since  each  class,  however,  passes  through  a  three- 
years'  course,  it  was  deemed  desirable  that  the  lectures 


vi  PREFACE. 

should  not  be  condensed  into  a  single  course  of  twelve, 
to  be  repeated  in  substance  each  year,  but  that  they 
should  be  so  enlarged  and  divided  as  to  give  to  each 
year  its  separate  and  distinct  topics.  I  have  therefore 
considered  in  this,  the  first  year,  chiefly  the  personal 
elements  which  bear  an  important  relation  to  preaching. 

The  second  year  will  deal  with  the  auxiliary  forces 
and  external  implements  by  which  the  preacher  pre- 
pares the  way  for  the  sermon,  or  gathers  up  its  fruit: 
the  conduct  of  public  service,  of  prayer-meetings,  and 
of  social  gatherings  of  every  kind;  the  function  of 
music  in  public  worship ;  the  methods  of  dealing  writh 
new  fields  of  labor;  the  direction  of  church-work  in 
old  communities,  —  in  short,  a  consideration  of  social 
and  religious  machinery  as  connected  with  preaching. 

I  purpose  to  discuss  during  the  third  year  the 
method  of  using  Christian  doctrines,  in  their  relations 
to  individual  dispositions  and  to  the  wants  of  commu- 
nities. 

It  will  therefore  be  seen  that  this  volume  contains 
only  one  division  of  the  whole  course  of  lectures. 

The  discourses  here  given  were  wholly  unwritten, 
and  were  familiar  conversational  addresses,  rather 
than  elaborate  speeches.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
revise  the  reporter's  notes,  or  to  correct  the  proofs  of 
the  printer.  If  any  are  offended  by  literary  infelicities, 
it  may  placate  them  to  know  that  I  am  more  annoyed 


PKEFACE.  vii 

than  they  can  be.  The  phonographic  report  of  the 
lecture  on  "Sermon-Making,"  when  prepared  for  the 
press,  unaccountably  disappeared,  and  was  never  re- 
gained. I  was  obliged  to  dictate  a  new  lecture  in 
the  best  way  I  could.  Those  who  heard  the  course 
may  by  this  circumstance  explain  the  difference  'be- 
tween what  they  read  and  what  they  remember  to 
have  heard. 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 

BROOKLYN,  N.  Y.,  June,  1872. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTTRB  PAG« 

I.  WHAT  is  PREACHING  ? 1 

The  Scope  of  Preaching 2 

The  Pauline  Method 6 

A  Bit  of  Experience          ......         10 

The  Power  of  Personal  Christian  Vitality       .         .         .13 

Sermons  and  Liturgies 14 

General  Advantages  of  Directness  .  .  .  .17 
Man-Building,  the  Preacher's  Business  ...  19 
Questions  and  Answers  ......  21 

II.  QUALIFICATIONS  OF  THE  PREACHER     ....         29 

Show-Sermons .  31 

Sympathy  with  Men 33 

Personal  Character  of  the  Preacher        .        .        .        .37 

Fertility  in  Subjects 40 

Style 42 

Qualifications  for  the  Profession         ....  43 

Questions  and  Answers 49 

III.    THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY         ...        53 

Different  Classes  of  Hearers 54 

How  to  meet  Differing  Minds 58 

An  Easy  Danger 59 

Demands  of  Variety  upon  the  Preacher  ...  61 
How  to  use  One's  own  Special  Forces  .  .  .  .62 

Self-Training  an  Education 65 

Preaching  the  Preacher's  whole  Business        .         .         .67 

External  Hindrances 69 

Self-Consciousness         ...  ...     72 


X  CONTENTS. 

Nearness  to  the  Audience .        .        .        .        .        .         72 

Questions  and  Answers 74 

IV.    THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE 76 

Necessities  of  the  Future 77 

Relation  of  Bible  Truth  to  Christianity  in  the  World  78 

Example  of  the  Apostles 80 

Weakness  of  Gospel-Preaching  in  the  Past        .         .  82 

Special  Reasons  for  studying  Human  Nature          .         .  82 

The  World's  Advancement  in  Thought      ...  87 

How  to  study  Human  Nature 90 

Metaphysical  Studies 93 

Phrenology  as  a  Convenient  Basis          .         .         .         .93 

Social  Habits 97 

Questions  and  Answers 99 

V.    THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS  .        .        .        104 

Circumstances  alter  Cases 104 

Writing  and  Extemporizing  .  .  .  .  .  105 
Variations  of  Denominational  Service  .  .  .  .106 
The  Power  of  Imagination  ...  .109 

Emotion 118 

Enthusiasm 121 

Faith 122 

Questions  and  Answers 125 

VI.    RHETORICAL  DRILL  AND  GENERAL  TRAINING     .        .  128 

The  Voice 129 

Various  Vocal  Elements 130 

Necessity  of  Drill 133 

Health  of  the  Voice 135 

Bodily  Carnage  —  Posture 136 

Gesture 136 

Seminary  Training 137 

Study  of  the  Bible 138 

Theology 140 

A  Small  Parish  at  First 141 

An  Early  Experience  in  the  West        .         .         .         .143 

General  Hints 147 

Questions  and  Answers 148 


CONTENTS.                -  xi 

VII.    RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS 154 

The  Nature  of  Illustration  ......  154 

Reasons  for  Illustrations  in  Preaching      .         .         .  155 

They  assist  Argument 157 

They  help  Hearers  to  remember       ....  159 

They  stimulate  Imagination 159 

The  Art  of  resting  Audiences           ....  160 

Illustrations  provide  for  Various  Hearers     .        .         .  162 

Modes  of  presenting  Argument        .        .        .        .  164 
Illustrations  bridge  Difficult  Places      .        .        .        .165 

They  educate  the  People 168 

Necessity  of  Variety 169 

Homely  Illustrations 170 

Illustrations  must  be  Apt 172 

How  to  get  Information 173 

Illustrations  must  be  Prompt 174 

The  Habit  of  Illustrating 174 

Questions  and  Answers 176 

VIII.    HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING      ...  181 

What  is  Health  ? 183 

Health  and  Thought 185 

Health  in  Speaking 186 

Popular  Orators 187 

Thrust-Power 188 

Health  as  a  Cheering  Influence         ....  189 

Healthful  Views  of  Christianity 190 

Health  as  a  Sweetener  of  Work        ....  192 

Practical  Hints 193 

Muscular  Strength  not  Enough        ....  194 

The  Art  of  Eating 194 

Quantity  of  Sleep 197 

Badly  Regulated  Work 198 

Sleep  after  Work 201 

Questions  and  Answers 203 

IX.    SERMON-MAKING  .                       207 

The  Discourses  of  Jesus 207 

Mode  of  the  Apostles 208 

Characteristics  of  Modern  Preaching    ....  208 


xii  .  CONTENTS. 

Laborionsness  of  the  Ministry 209 

Preparation  of  the  Sermon 211 

Advantages  and  Dangers  of  Written  Sermons   .        .  212 

Advantages  of  Unwritten  Discourse      ....  213 

Points  to  be  guarded  in  Extempore  Preaching  .        .  216 

Ideal  Sermonizing 218 

General  Variety  of  Sermon-Plans      ....  218 

The  Natural  Method 222 

Suggestive  Preaching 223 

Expository  Preaching 224 

Great  Sermons 226 

Style 228 

General  Hints — Professional  Manners      .        .        .  231 

Professional  Association        ......  233 

Length  of  Sermons 234 

Trust  in  Audiences 234 

Summary  .........  235 

Questions  and  Answers 236 

X.    LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  MIN- 
ISTRY          238 

What  is  Love  ? 239 

Love,  the  Central  Power  of  the  Ministry      .        .        .  241 

Love,  not  mere  Good-nature 243 

Love  of  the  Work 245 

The  Healthfulness  of  Benevolence    ....  246 

Love,  a  Power-Giving  Element 248 

The  Sustaining  Power  of  Love 253 

Love,  the  Key-Note  of  Pulpit-Work    .        .        .        .254 

Love  makes  a  Free  Preacher 255 

Questions  and  Answers 259 


LECTUEES  COT  PEEACHOTG. 


i 

WHAT  IS  PREACHING? 

January  31,  1872. 

DO  not  propose,  in  the  few  lectures  which 
I  shall  give  in  this  place,  and  which  hardly 
deserve  to  be  dignified  by  the  name  of  lec- 
tures, to  make  them  other  than  familiar 
conversations. 

This  Lectureship  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  a  regu- 
lar Professorship  of  pastoral  theology.  Such  a  profes- 
sorship is  already  founded  in  your  Divinity  School,  and 
amply  and  ably  served.  This  lectureship  is  an  auxiliary 
to  it ;  but  even  that  only  in  one  regard,  namely,  the 
element  of  Preaching. 

When  one  takes  charge  of  a  parish  he  assumes  the 
care  of  several  departments,  which,  though  intimately 
related,  are  yet  in  nature  quite  distinct.  In  his  social 
relations,  visiting  from  house  to  house,  he  is  a  pastor. 
In  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  church,  the  ap- 
pointment and  conduct  of  the  subordinate  meetings,  he 
is  an  administrator,  or  more  like  what  in  civil  govern- 
ment is  termed  an  executive.  But  besides  this,  he  is  to 

1  A 


2  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

teach  and  inspire  men  from  the  platform  or  pulpit ;  and 
that  is  what  we  mean  distinctively  by  Preaching.  The 
design  of  this  lectureship  is  not  to  supersede  the  instruc- 
tions given  already  by  the  incumbent  of  the  chair  of 
Pastoral  Theology,  but  to  intensify  one  portion  of  his 
teachings  by  bringing  in  from  the  field  those  who  are 
actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  preaching,  that  you 
may  derive  from  them  the  results  of  their  observation 
and  experience.  For  I  believe  that  it  is  the  wish  and 
purpose  of  this  Institution  to  send  out  preachers,  —  not 
merely  good  managers,  good  pastors,  but  good  preachers. 

THE   SCOPE   OF  PREACHING. 

A  preacher  is  a  teacher ;  but  he  is  more.  A  teacher 
brings  before  men  a  given  view,  or  a  department  of  truth. 
He  expends  his  force  upon  facts  or  ideas.  But  a  preacher 
assumes  or  proves  facts  and  truths  as  a  vehicle  through 
which  he  may  bring  his  spirit  to  bear  upon  men.  A 
preacher  looks  upon  truth  from  the  constructive  point 
of  view.  He  looks  beyond  mere  knowledge  to  the  char- 
acter which  that  knowledge  is  to  form.  It  is  not  enough 
that  men  shall  know.  They  must  be.  Every  stroke  of 
his  brush  must  bring  out  some  element  of  the  likeness 
to  Christ  which  he  is  seeking  to  produce.  He  is  an  artist, 
—  not  of  forms  and  matter,  but  of  the  soul.  Every 
sermon  is  like  the  stroke  of  Michael  Angelo's  chisel, 
and  the  hidden  figure  emerges  at  every  blow.  A 
teacher  has  doubtless  an  ulterior  reference  to  practical 
results  ;  but  the  preacher,  not  indifferent  to  remote  and 
indirect  results,  aims  at  the  immediate.  "  Now !  Now  !  " 
is  his  inspiration.  "  Cease  to  do  evil,  at  once.  Turn  to- 
ward good  immediately.  Add  strength  to  every  excel- 


WHAT   IS   PEEACHIXG  ?  3 

lence,  and  virtue  to  virtue,  now  and  continually."  The 
effect  of  his  speech  upon  the  souls  of  men  is  his  objec- 
tive. It  is  this  moral  fruit  in  men's  souls  for  which  he 
plants  his  truth,  as  so  much  seed. 

Change  the  illustration  and  adopt  the  architectural 
figure  so  much  employed  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  of  rearing 
a  building.  When  a  master-builder  goes  to  the  forest 
for  material,  he  does  not  take  trees  of  any  and  every 
kind,  and  then  put  them  together  at  haphazard,  or  so 
as  to  accommodate  his  building  to  the  form  of  the  trees. 
The  trees  must  conform  to  the  house  that  is  to  be.  The 
builder  carries  in  his  eye  the  future  house,  and  selects 
his  trees  from  the  wood  by  the  known  wants  of  the 
house ;  this  one  for  a  sill,  that  one  for  a  corner-post, 
others  for  beams,  and  so  on.  Thus  all  truths,  all  sermons, 
are  merely  subordinate  material  and  instruments  ;  the 
preacher's  real  end  is  to  be  found  in  the  soul-building 
that  is  going  on.  He  is  an  artist  of  living  forms,  of  in- 
visible colors ;  an  architect  of  a  house  not  built  with 
hands  —  Jesus  Christ,  the  foundation. 

There  is  another  element  which  discriminates  a  preach- 
er from  a  teacher.  Moral  truths  may  become  personal, 
as  physical  or  scientific  truths  cannot.  Xiunber,  weight, 
dimension,  have  no  relation  to  a  speaker's  personal  feel- 
ings or  those  of  his  hearers ;  but  hope,  fear,  joy,  love, 
faith,  have.  A  preacher  is  in  some  degree  a  reproduction 
of  the  truth  in  personal  form.  The  truth  must  exist  in 
him  as  a  living  experience,  a  glowing  enthusiasm,  an  in- 
tense reality.  The  "Word  of  God  in  the  Book  is  a  dead 
letter.  It  is  paper,  type,  and  ink.  In  the  preacher 
that  word  becomes  again  as  it  was  when  first  spoken 
by  prophet,  priest,  or  apostle.  It  springs  up  in  him 


4  LECTUKES   OX   PKEACHIXG. 

as  if  it  were  first  kindled  in  his  heart,  and  he  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  give  it  forth.  He  is  so 
moved. 

The  preacher  is  one  who  is  aiming  directly  at  the 
ennobling  of  his  hearer.  He  seeks  to  do  this  partly  by 
the  use  of  truth  existing  as  a  philosophy  or  by  ordinary 
facts,  but  yet  more  by  giving  to  such  truth  the  glow  and 
color  and  intensity  which  are  derived  from  his  own  soul. 
If  one  may  so  say,  he  digests  the  truth  and  makes  it 
personal,  and  then  brings  his  own  being  to  bear  upon 
that  of  his  hearers.  All  true  -preaching  bears  the  impress 
of  the  nature  of  the  preacher.  "  Christ  in  you."  The 
truth  is  that  which  is  represented  in  the  historical 
Jesus  Christ,  but  it  is  that  truth  "  in  you"  or  as  it  exists 
in  each  man's  distinctive  personality,  which  must  make 
it  a  living  force. 

Of  course,  in  such  a  view,  all  preaching  is  to  find  its 
criterion  of  merit  in  the  work  performed  in  men's  hearts, 
and  not  in  any  ideal  excellence  of  the  sermon.  The 
sermon  is  only  a  tool,  and  the  work  which  is  accom- 
plished by  it  is  to  measure  its  value.  No  man  is  to 
preach  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon,  nor  for  the  sake  of 
"  the  truth,"  nor  for  the  sake  of  any  "  system  of  truth  " ; 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the  men  that 
listen  to  his  words.  How  aimlessly  does  he  preach 
who  has  no  thought  of  men,  but  who  sympathizes  only 
with  his  own  cogitations!  How  yet  more  foolish  is 
he  who  has  a  certain  round  of  topics  which  he  calls 
his  "  system,"  and  which  he  serves  out  almost  me- 
chanically to  meet  his  contract  with  the  society  which 
employs  him ! 

It  is  hardly  an  imaginary  case  to  describe  one  as  ap- 


WHAT   IS   PEEACHING  ?  5 

preaching  the  Sabbath  day  somewhat  in  this  way :  "  0 
dear  me,  I  have  got  to  preach !  I  have  beat  out  pretty 
much  all  there  is  in  that  straw,  and  I  wonder  what  I 
shall  preach  on  next "  ;  and  so  the  man  takes  the  Bible 
and  commences  to  turn  over  the  leaves,  hoping  that  he 
will  hit  something.  He  looks  up  and  down,  and  turns 
forward  and  backward,  and  finally  he  does  see  a  light, 
and  he  says,  "  I  can  make  something  interesting  from 
that."  Interesting,  why  ?  For  what  purpose  ?  What, 
under  heaven,  but  that  he  is  a  salaried  officer  expected 
to  preach  twice  on  Sunday,  and  to  lecture  or  hold  the 
prayer-meeting  in  the  middle  of  the  week ;  and  the 
time  has  come  round  when,  like  a  clock,  it  is  his  busi- 
ness to  strike,  and  so  he  does  strike,  just  as  ignorantly 
as  the  hammer  strikes  upon  the  bell !  He  is  following 
out  no  intelligent  plan.  He  is  a  perfunctory  preacher, 
doing  a  duty  because  appointed  to  that  duty. 

What  would  you  think  of  a  physician  in  the  house- 
hold who  has  been  called  to  minister  to  a  sick  member 
of  some  family,  and  who  says,  "  Well,  I  will  leave  some- 
thing or  other;  I  don't  know;  what  shall  I  leave  ?"  and 
he  looks  in  his  saddle-bags  to  see  what  he  has  yet  got 
the  most  of,  and  prescribes  it  with  no  directions ;  the 
father,  mother,  and  children  may  all  take  a  little,  and 
the  servants  may  have  the  rest.  Another  physician, 
and  a  true  one,  comes,  and  the  mother  says,  "  Doctor, 
I  have  called  you  in  to  prescribe  for  my  child."  He 
sits  down  and  studies  the  child's  symptoms ;  traces 
them  back  to  the  supposed  cause ;  reflects  how  he  shall 
hit  that  case,  what  remedial  agents  are  supposed  to  be 
effective,  what  shall  be  the  form  of  administration,  how 
often ;  he  considers  the  child's  temperament  and  age, 


6  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

and  adapts  himself  to  the  special  necessity  of  the  in- 
dividual case. 

Do  you  suppose  a  man  can  deal  with  so  subtile  a  thing 
as  the  human  soul  without  any  thought,  skill,  sagacity 
in  adaptation ;  can  take  a  sermon  and  throw  its  contents 
over  the  congregation,  and  let  everybody  pick  out  of  it 
what  he  can  find,  —  each  man  left  to  take  his  share  ? 
Can  this  be  done  in  a  ministry  and  accomplish  any 
good?  Yes,  in  God's  providence,  some  good  is  done 
even  in  this  way.  Paul  said  that  the  "  foolishness  of 
preaching"  would  do  a  great  deal  of  good;  and  there 
is  so  much  foolish  preaching  that  it  would  be  strange 
if  some  of  it  did  not  do  some  good,  here  or  there. 

THE  PAULINE   METHOD. 

But  preaching  must  come  back  to  what  it  was  in  the 
apostolic  times.  It  must  come  back  to  the  conditions 
tinder  which  those  men  were  so  eminent  for  their  suc- 
cess in  winning  souls.  If  you  want  to  be  a  preacher  to 
your  fellows,  you  must  become  a  "fisher  of  men,"  —  your 
business  is  to  catch  them.  The  preacher's  task  is  first 
to  arouse ;  secondly,  on  that  aroused  moral  condition 
to  build,  and  continue  building  until  he  has  com- 
pleted the  whole.  The  thing  that  a  preacher  aims  at 
all  the  while  is  reconstructed  manhood,  a  nobler  idea  in 
his  congregation  of  how  people  ought  to  live  and  what 
they  ought  to  be.  To  be  sure,  you  will  find  in  the  New 
Testament  that  there  is  a  great  deal  more  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Apostles  than  this.  There  was  a  great  deal 
that  was  incidental ;  a  great  deal  that  belonged  to  the 
extrication  of  Christians  from  the  Jewish  thraldom  ;  a 
great  deal  that  belonged  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  time, 


WHAT  IS  PREACHING  ?  7 

and  which  can  be  transferred  to  our  time  by  adapting, 
not  adopting.  If  you  will  look  through  the  New  Tes- 
tament with  your  eye  on  that  point,  you  will  find  that 
Paul  —  the  greatest  of  all  preachers,  I  take  it  —  aimed 
all  the  way  through,  and  certainly  Peter,  in  his  famous 
sermon  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  aimed,  at  reconstructed 
manhood.  Consider  attentively  Paul's  idea  of  the  work 
of  Christian  ministers,  as  given  in  his  letter  to  the 
Ephesian  assembly  of  Christians  (Eph.  iv.  11  - 16,  in- 
clusive). The  end,  Manhood.  The  means,  Truth.  The 
spirit,  Love.  The  ideal,  Christ.  The  inspiration,  the 
living  Spirit  of  God  ! 

This  being  the  aim  of  true  preaching,  there  is  but 
one  question  more  to  be  added ;  that  is,  by  what  in- 
strument, by  what  influence,  are  you  to  reach  it  ?  The 
ideal  of  a  true  Christian  preacher  —  I  do  not  mean  that 
no  man  is  a  Christian  preacher  who  does  not  live  up  to 
this  ideal,  for  we  are  all  imperfect,  but  the  ideal  toward 
which  every  man  should  strive  —  is  this,  to  take  the 
great  truths  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ's  teachings,  and 
the  love  of  God  to  the  human  race,  and  make  them 
a  part  of  his  own  personal  experience,  so  that  when  he 
speaks  to  men  it  shall  not  be  he  alone  that  speaks,  but 
God  in  him.  To  quote  texts  to  men  is  good  for  some 
purposes  ;  but  that  is  not  preaching.  If  it  were,  then 
you  would  better  read  the  Bible  altogether,  without 
note  or  comment,  to  men.  The  reason  why  reading  the 
truths  that  are  just  as  plainly  stated  there  has  some- 
times so  much  less  effect  than  stating  them  in  your 
own  way,  is  that  the  truth  will  gain  a  force  when  it 
becomes  a  part  of  you  that  it  would  not  have  when 
merely  read  as  a  text. 


8  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Look,  for  instance,  at  what  Paul  did  when  he 
preached.  He  was  consumed  with  the  love  of  Christ. 
He  was  made  restless  with  the  intensity  of  his  feeling ; 
and  wherever  he  went  he  did  not  preach  Christ  as  John 
would.  He  did  not  preach  Christ  as  Peter  would.  He 
preached  Christ  as  Christ  had  been  revealed  to  him  and 
in  him.  It  was  the  Pauline  conception  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  that  Paul  preached. 

You  may  say  that  Christ  is  one  and  the  same,  and 
whoever  preaches  him,  it  must  be  substantially  the 
same  thing.  You  might  just  as  well  say  that  the  sun 
is  one  and  the  same,  and  that  therefore  whatever  flower 
shows*  the  sun's  work  must  look  the  same ;  but  when 
you  look  at  the  flowers  you  will  see  some  red,  some 
blue,  some  yellow,  some  humble,  some  high,  some 
branching.  Endless  is  the  work  the  sun  creates ;  but 
every  one  of  the  things  which  it  creates,  reflects  its 
power  and  teaches  something  about  it.  It  takes  the 
experience  of  a  thousand  men  brought  into  one  ideal, 
to  make  up  the  conception  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
You  may  read  what  Paul  wrote  about  him,  you  may 
read  what  was  written  by  John  or  Peter  or  James  or 
Matthew,  and  the  impression  produced  by  either  of 
these  is  fragmentary  ;  it  is  presenting  some  things  out 
of  the  infinite ;  and  it  cannot  produce  a  conception  of 
the  infinite  in  the  minds  of  men. 

When  under  the  gospel  men  are  made  preachers,  God 
works  in  them  a  saving  knowledge  of  himself,  gives 
them  a  sense  of  the  sympathy  between  God  and  man, 
of  the  spiritual  love  wliich  appeals  from  the  infinite  to 
the  mortal ;  and  then  says  to  them,  "  Take  this  reve- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ  in  you,  and  go  out  and  preach 


WHAT  IS   PREACHING? 

it."  Tell  what  God  has  done  for  your  soul,  not  in  a 
technical  way,  but  in  a  large  way ;  take  the  truth  re- 
vealed in  you,  and  according  to  the  structure  of  your 
understanding,  your  emotive  affections,  the  sentiments 
of  your  own  soul,  filled  with  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  go  and  preach  to  men  for  the  sake  of  making 
them  know  the  love  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  you  will  have 
a  power  in  you  to  make  that  preaching  effective.  There 
is  a  place  for  knowledge,  purely  as  such ;  but  that 
which  you  want  to  effect  is,  from  the  consciousness  of 
your  own  nature  to  describe  the  love  of  God,  not  in  the 
abstract  conception,  but  experimentally,  just  as  it  has 
been  felt  by  you,  so  as  to  produce  a  longing  for  the 
love  of  God  in  your  hearers.  It  will  be  imperfect.  There 
are  no  perfect  preachers  in  the  world.  The  only  perfect 
men  in  this  world  are  the  Doctors  of  Divinity,  who 
teach  systematic  theology.  They  know  everything,  all 
of  it,  and  I  envy  them.  But  men  that  preach  take  only 
so  much  of  the  truth  as  they  can  hold,  and,  generally 
speaking,  preachers  don't  hold  a  great  deal.  They  are 
all  partialists. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  things  I  read  in  the  life  of 
Paul  is  in  the  13th  chapter  of  1st  Corinthians,  in  which, 
•when  he  has  expressed  his  raptures  in  giving  the  ever- 
lasting exposition  of  love,  he  says :  "  After  all,  we  are 
only  fragmentary  creatures  ;  we  only  see  bits  and  spots  ; 
now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then  we  shall 
see  face  to  face ;  now  I  know  in  part,  I  know  only 
portions  of  things,  but  then  shall  I  know  as  I  am 
known."  He  felt  how  empty  he  was  ;  and  yet  what  a 
creature  was  that  Paul!  What  a  magnificent  moving 
spirit  the  man  was !  But  when  he  spoke  about  him- 
i* 


10  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

self  in  that  epistle,  written  late  in  his  life,  he  felt  that  he 
was  not  a  full  man  ;  that  he  could  not  represent  or  re- 
flect the  whole  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  No  man  can. 
No  hundred  men  can.  It  is  your  office  as  preachers  to 
take  so  much  of  the  truth  of  Christ  Jesus  as  has  be- 
come digested  and  assimilated  into  your  own  spiritual 
life,  and  with  that,  strike  !  with  that,  flash !  with  that, . 
burn  men ! 

A  BIT   OF   EXPERIENCE. 

I  remember  the  first  sermon  I  ever  preached.  I  had 
preached  a  good  many  sermons  before,  too.  But  I  re- 
member the  first  real  one.  I  had  preached  a  good 
while  as  I  had  used  my  gun.  I  used  to  go  out  hunting 
by  myself,  and  I  had  great  success  in  firing  off  my  gun ; 
and  the  game  enjoyed  it  as  much  as  I  did,  for  I  never 
hit  them  or  hurt  them.  I  fired  off  my  gun  as  I  see 
hundreds  of  men  firing  off  their  sermons.  I  loaded  it, 
and  bang !  —  there  ^ras  a  smoke,  a  report,  but  nothing 
fell;  and  so  it  was  again  and  again.  I  recollect  one 
day  in  the  fields  my  father  pointed  out  a  little  red 
squirrel,  and  said  to  me,  "Henry,  would  you  like  to 
shoot  him  ? "  I  trembled  all  over,  but  I  said,  "  Yes." 
He  got  down  on  his  knee,  put  the  gun  across  a  rail, 
and  said,  "  Henry,  keep  perfectly  cool,  perfectly  cool ; 
take  aim."  And  I  did,  and  I  fired,  and  over  went  the 
squirrel,  and  he  did  n't  run  away  either.  That  was 
the  first  thing  I  ever  hit ;  and  I  felt  an  inch  taller, 
as  a  boy  that  had  killed  a  squirrel,  and  knew  how  to 
aim  a  gun. 

I  had  preached  two  years  and  a  half  at  Lawrence- 
burg,  in  Indiana,  (and  some  sporadic  sermons  before 
that,)  when  I  went  to  Indianapolis.  While  there  I  was 


WHAT  IS  PREACHING  ?  11 

very  much  discontented.  I  had  been  discontented  for 
two  years.  I  had  expected  that  there  would  be  a 
general  public  interest,  and  especially  in  the  week 
before  the  communion  season.  In  the  West  we  had 
protracted  meetings,  and  the  people  would  come  up  to 
a  high  point  of  feeling;  but  I  never  could  get  them 
beyond  that.  They  would  come  down  again,  and  there 
would  be  no  conversions.  I  sent  for  Dr.  Stowe  to  come 
down  and  help  me;  but  he  would  not  come,  for  he 
thought  it  better  for  me  to  bear  the  yoke  myself. 
When  I  had  lived  at  Indianapolis  the  first  year,  I  said : 
"  There  was  a  reason  wrhy  when  the  apostles  preached 
they  succeeded,  and  I  will  find  it  out  if  it  is  to  be  found 
out."  I  took  every  single  instance  in  the  Eecord,  where 
I  could  find  one  of  their  sermons,  and  analyzed  it  and 
asked  myself:  "What  were  the  circumstances  ?  who 
were  the  people  ?  what  did  he  do  ? "  and  I  studied  the 
sermons  until  I  got  this  idea :  That  the  apostles  were 
accustomed  first  to  feel  for  a  ground  on  which  the  peo- 
ple and  they  stood  together ;  a  common  ground  where 
they  could  meet.  Then  they  heaped  up  a  large  number 
of  the  particulars  of  knowledge  that  belonged  to  every- 
body ;  and  when  they  had  got  that  knowledge,  which 
everybody  would  admit,  placed  in  a  proper  form  before 
their  minds,  then  they  brought  it  to  bear  upon  them 
with  all  their  excited  heart  and  feeling.  That  was  the 
first  definite  idea  of  taking  aim  that  I  had  in  my  mind. 
"Now,"  said  I,  "I  will  make  a  sermon  so."  I  re- 
member it  just  as  well  as  if  it  were  yesterday.  First, 
I  sketched  out  the  things  we  all  know.  "  You  all  know 
you  are  living  in  a  world  perishing  under  your  feet. 
You  all  know  that  time  is  extremely  uncertain ;  that 


12  LECTUEES   ON  PREACHING. 

you  cannot  tell  whether  you  will  live  another  month 
or  week.  You  all  know  that  your  destiny,  in  the  life 
that  is  to  come,  depends  upon  the  character  you  are 
forming  in  this  life  " ;  and  in  that  way  I  went  on  with 
my  "  You  all  knows,"  until  I  had  about  forty  of  them. 
When  I  had  got  through  that,  I  turned  round  and 
brought  it  to  bear  upon  them  with  all  my  might ;  and 
there  were  seventeen  men  awakened  under  that  ser- 
mon. I  never  felt  so  triumphant  in  my  life.  I  cried 
all  the  way  home.  I  said  to  myself:  "Now  I  know 
how  to  preach." 

I  could  not  make  another  sermon  for  a  month  that 
was  good  for  anything.  I  had  used  all  my  powder 
and  shot  on  that  one.  But,  for  the  first  time  in  my 
life,  I  had  got  the  idea  of  taking  aim.  I  soon  added  to 
it  the  idea  of  analyzing  the  people  I  was  preaching  to, 
and  so  taking  aim  for  specialties.  Of  course  that  came 
gradually  and  later,  with  growing  knowledge  and  expe- 
rience. 

Young  man,  when  you  get  a  parish,  don't  be  dis- 
couraged for  the  first  ten  years,  no  matter  how  poor 
your  work.  There  is  no  trade  that  requires  so  long  an 
apprenticeship  as  preaching ;  and  yet  there  is  no  trade 
to  which  they  admit  a  man  so  soon,  or  in  which  he 
learns  so  fast.  It  is  easier  to  study  law  and  become  a 
successful  practitioner,  it  is  easier  to  study  medicine 
and  become  a  successful  practitioner,  than  it  is  to 
study  the  human  soul  all  through,  —  to  know  its  living 
forms,  and  to  know  the  way  of  talking  to  it,  and 
coining  into  sympathy  with  it.  To  make  the  truths  of 
God  and  the  Divine  influences  a  part  of  your  daily, 
enthusiastic  experience,  and  to  bring  to  bear  out  of 


WHAT   IS    PREACHING  ?  13 

your  treasury  what  is  ne'eded  here  or  there,  —  that 
requires  a  great  deal  of  experience,  and  a  great  deal 
of  study. 

THE   POWER   OF  PERSONAL  CHRISTIAN  VITALITY. 

This  living  force,  then,  of  the  human  soul,  brought 
to  bear  upon  living  souls,  for  the  sake  of  their  trans- 
formation, being  the  fundamental  idea,  I  think  it  will 
be  interesting  to  you  for  me  to  state  more  at  large 
the  fact  that  not  only  was  this  the  Apostolic  idea  of 
preaching,  but  it  was  the  secret  of  the  power  of  the 
first  Christian  Church  for  many  hundred  years.  It  is 
historically  true  that  Christianity  did  not  in  its  begin- 
ning succeed  by  the  force  of  its  doctrines,  but  by  the 
I  ices  of  its  disciples.  It  succeeded  first  as  a  light ;  in 
accordance  with  the  Master's  command,  "  Let  your  light 
so  s'hine  before  men  that  they,  seeing  your  good  works, 
may  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Make 
religion  attractive  by  the  goodness  that  men  see  in 
you ;  be  so  sweet,  so  sparkling,  so  buoyant,  so  cheerful, 
hopeful,  courageous,  conscientious  and  yet  not  stub- 
born, so  perfectly  benevolent  and  yet  not  mawkish 
or  sentimental ;  blossoming  in  everything  that  is  good, 
a  rebuke  to  everything  that  is  mean  or  little,  —  make 
such  men  of  yourselves  that  everybody  who  looks  upon 
you  may  say,  "  That  is  a  royal  good  fellow ;  he  has 
the  spirit  that  I  should  like  to  lean  upon  in  time  of 
trouble,  or  to  be  a  companion  with  at  all  times."  Build 
up  such  a  manhood  that  it  shall  be  winning  to  men. 
That  is  what  the  early  Christians  did. 

It  was  not  by  doctrinal  subtleties  that  they  over- 
came philosophy.  The  heathen  world  found  that  the 


14  LECTUKES   ON  PREACHING. 

lowest  class  of  people,  the  people  least  likely  to  attain 
the  serious  heights  of  philosophy,  were  developing  traits 
that  neither  persecution,  neglect,  nor  opprobrium  could 
change ;  so  that  after  a  while  it  began  to  be  proverbial, 
that  Christian  men  were  more  beautiful  livers  than  any- 
body else.  It  was  the  beauty  of  Christian  life  that 
overcame  philosophy,  and  won  the  way  for  Christian 
doctrine. 

Again,  we  are  to  seek  to  preach,  not  simply  by  our 
own  personal  experience,  but  by  bringing  together  one 
and  another  in  the  church,  and  having  the  whole  life 
of  the  church  so  beautiful  in  the  community  that  it 
shall  be  a  constant  attraction  to  win  men  unceasingly 
to  us  and  our  influence.  This  was  what  Christ  com- 
manded, what  the  early  church  did ;  and  the  world  will 
be  converted,  not  until  the  whole  body  of  Christians 
become  in  this  sense  preachers. 

SERMONS  AND  LITURGIES. 

In  view  of  the  statements  I  have  made,  I  wish  to 
discriminate  between  the  two  great  church  bodies  that 
exist.  We  are  apt  to  divide  the  Christian  world  into 
the  Protestant  and  Catholic.  I  prefer  to  divide  it  into 
the  Evangelical  and  the  Hierarchical.  They  are  sharply 
distinguished  by  various  other  things,  but  by  nothing 
more,  it  seems  to  me,  than  by  this,  that  the  Hierarchical 
body,  in  all  its  various  forms,  relies  for  its  success  upon 
the  administration  of  ordinances  and  systems  of  wor- 
ship; while  the  Evangelical  body  relies  substantially 
for  its  success  upon  the  living  force  of  man  upon  man. 
Both  hold  to  the  indispensableness  of  Divine  power; 
but  one  believes  that  power  to  work  chiefly  through 


WHAT   IS   PREACHING  ?  15 

church  ordinances,  the  other  believes  that  it  works 
through  living  men. 

Wherever  you  shall  find  the  altar  and  the  sacrifice ; 
wherever  you  shall  find  robes,  candles,  and  liturgies ; 
wherever  you  shall  find  piled  high  instrumentalities 
of  this  kind,  sermons  shrink  and  sermonizers  are  fewer 
and  fewer.  "Where  the  church  looks  for  power  in  exter- 
nal forms,  preaching  tends  to  decay.  On  the  other  hand, 
where  the  ordinances  are  very  few,  and  yet  the  church 
has  life,  the  pulpit  thrives  and  waxes  strong.  The  man 
in  the  pulpit  is  the  only  thing  the  Presbyterian  and 
Congregationalist  have  to  rely  upon ;  but  when  you 
consider  that  preaching  means  the  power  of  living 
men  upon  living  men,  you  will  see  that  they  who  have 
strength  in  the  pulpit  have  the  very  heart  of  the  matter. 

There  is  just  as  much  difference  between  the  man  who 
is  a  mere  administrator  of  ordinances,  —  which  Paul 
thanked  God  he  had  not  much  to  do  with,  for  he  had 
not  been  sent  to  baptize  but  to  preach  the  gospel,  and 
the  administration  of  ordinances  with  him  was  one 
thing  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent thing,  —  there  is  just  as  much  difference  between 
the  man  who  administers  ordinances  and  the  man  who 
preaches  the  gospel,  as  there  is  between  the  man  who 
prints  a  chromo  and  the  man  that  paints  the  picture 
which  the  chromo  prints.  The  man  that  strikes  out 
the  original  plan  upon  the  canvas  and  brings  it  to  its 
perfection  is  an  artist.  But  the  man  who  takes  fifteen 
stones,  every  stone  carrying  one  color,  and  from  them 
prints  the  chromo,  may  produce  a  perfect  picture,  but 
after  all  he  is  nothing  but  the  mechanician,  putting 
the  ink  on  the  paper,  while  the  stone  does  all  the  work. 


16  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

The  man  that  preaches  with  power  is  an  artist.  He 
is  a  living  creature.  But  the  man  that  merely  comes 
to  administer  ordinances  on  Sundays  or  Saints'  days, 
who  goes  through  a  regular  routine,  is  nothing  but  the 
engineer  who  runs  the  machine. 

But  does  he  not  do  good  ?  Yes ;  a  great  deal.  Is  not 
the  world  better  with  him  than  it  would  be  without 
him  ?  Yes ;  a  great  deal  better.  Yet  how  much  better 
it  would  be  if  you  could  have  both,  —  if  the  man  could 
be  a  living  creature,  to  say  what  he  has  got  in  him,  and 
then  cany  that  along,  and  confirm  it,  and  build  it  up 
by  institutional  influences.  Preaching  arouses,  gathers 
material,  prepares  the  way ;  institutions  come  in  to 
consolidate  and  keep. 

There  is  a  reason  why  different  churches  and  different 
men  succeed  as  they  do.  For  example,  take  a  Presby- 
terian, or  an  Orthodox  Congregational  Church,  in  which 
the  minister  is  an  acute  and  eminent  thinker  ;  he  runs 
all  to  thought.  He  will  indoctrinate  his  people,  educate 
them,  build  them  up  disproportionately  in  their  minds, 
and  that  is  about  alL  Things  will  stand  steadily,  grow 
slowly,  and  develop  but  little.  Right  alongside  of  him 
there  is  a  man  with  strong,  emotive,  vitalizing  life ;  a 
man  who  is  not  so  much  after  thoughts  as  he  is  after 
the  people,  or  after  bait  to  catch  the  people  with.  He 
means  men,  first,  and  last,  and  all  the  while.  Systems, 
to  him,  are  beautiful  if  they  will  act  like  a  net  to  catch 
folks,  and  good  for  nothing  if  they  do  not.  High  doc- 
trines, to  him,  are  valuable,  just  in  proportion  as  they 
give  position  from  which  to  throw  stones  upon  the 
besiegers  round  about.  It  is  power  over  men  that  he 
wants.  He  is  not  necessarily  less  a  teacher ;  but  what 


WHAT   IS   PREACHING  ?  17 

a  vitality  he  will  give  to  his  church  !  How  strongly  it 
will  swell !  How  it  will  grow  !  "What  an  effect  it  will 
produce  in  the  community !  It  is  the  living  force  with- 
in him  that  does  it.  It  is  the  manhood  in  him  ;  it  -is 
the  Spirit  of  God  dwelling  in  him,  that  is  the  occasion 
of  such  a  success. 

There  is  no  church,  in  my  experience,  more  suc- 
cessful than  the  Methodist  Church  in  the  West.  I 
worked  beside  that  church  for  fifteen  years,  and  saw 
the  whole  operation,  and  knew  the  men  that  were 
in  the  church.  They  were  not  men  largely  equipped 
with  theology.  I  knew  Elder  Havens  when  he  began 
to  preach.  He  knew  so  little,  had  so  little  culture,  that 
he  had  to  count  the  chapters  to  tell  what  chapter  it 
was,  and  then  count  the  verses  to  tell  what  verse  it. 
was;  yet  afterwards  he  became  no  mean  scholar.  I 
knew  hundreds  of  men  there  that  were  stammerers  in 
learning.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  they  had  eminent  power. 
They  did  no  institutional  work ;  but  they  had  zeal,  fer- 
vor, personal  feeling ;  and  by  that,  little  as  their  knowl- 
edge was,  small  as  was  the  area  of  the  thoughts  they 
brought  to  bear,  they  transformed  communities.  They 
were  real  preachers.  They  had  the  right  idea  of  preach- 
ing, and  they  succeeded  in  spite  of  their  ignorance. 
Their  personal  experience  was  very  strong,  and  their 
feelings  were  outspoken,  demonstrative.  They  brought 
to  bear  the  truth  of  God  in  their  souls  upon  the  masses 
of  mankind,  and  the  effect  corresponded  to  the  cause. 

GENERAL   ADVANTAGES   OF  DIRECTNESS. 

This  view  also  will  discriminate  between  sermons,  — 
those  which  seek  direct  effects  definitely  aimed  at,  and 


18  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

those  that  are  institutional  sermons.  There  are  sermons 
for  preaching,  and  there  are  sermons  also  for  teaching 
and  confirming.  I  do  not  say  you  siould  not  preach 
these  secondary  sermons ;  but  if  that  is  the  whole  style 
of  your  ministry,  you  will  not  be  so  successful,  al- 
though you  may  slowly  advance.  Every  man  ought  to 
preach  two  kinds  of  sermons :  one  for  direct  power  on 
men's  minds  and  hearts,  and  the  other  for  their  broad- 
ening in  knowledge ;  but  of  this  last  class,  less  and  less 
in  our  time,  because  the  people  have  so  many  other 
sources  of  knowledge,  and  so  many  other  training  in- 
fluences are  going  on  in  the  community. 

No  man  ought  to  go  into  the  pulpit  with  the  direct 
kind  of  sermon  without  having  a  definite  reason  why 
he  selected  one  subject  rather  than  another,  and  wThy 
he  put  it  in  one  form  rather  than  another.  The  old- 
fashioned  way  of  sermonizing  affords  us  some  amuse- 
ment ;  but  they  did  a  great  deal  of  good  with  those 
queer,  regulation  old  methods  of  first,  second,  third,  and 
then  the  subdivisions.  I  remember  that,  in  my  boy- 
hood, the  moment  a  man  announced  his  text,  I  could 
tell  pretty  nearly  as  well  as  he  could  how  he  would  lay 
it  out,  because  I  knew  he  must  proceed  according  to 
certain  forms. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  highest  conception  of  a 
sermon  is,  that  it  is  a  prescription  which  a  man  has 
made,  either  for  a  certain  individual,  or  for  a  certain 
class,  or  for  a  certain  state  of  things  that  he  knows  to 
exist  in  the  congregation.  It  is  as  much  a  matter  of  pre- 
scription as  the  physician's  medicine  is.  For  instance, 
you  say,  "  In  my  congregation  there  has  been  a  good 
deal  of  affliction,  which  I  think  I  ought  to  comfort.  Now, 


WHAT  IS  PREACHING  ?  19 

of  all  ways  of  comforting,  how  shall  I  do  it  ?  Shall 
I  show  the  hand  of  God  in  all  his  administration  ? 
"What  will  that  do  ?  That  mode  of  consolation  will 
raise  people  up  into  the  conception  of  God ;  but  those 
that  cannot  rise  so  high  will  fall  short  of  it  and  not  get 
it.  Or,  I  can  show  them  how  afflictions  will  elevate  the 
soul ;  and  that  will  have  another  range.  Or,  it  may  be 
that  I  will  not  say  a  word  about  that,  but  strike  a  blow 
that  exhilarates  men  and  lifts  them  up,  independent 
of  any  allusion  to  troubles ;  I  may  strike  a  chord  to 
awaken  the  courage  of  men.  What  subject  can  I  take 
which  will  most  successfully  sound  that  chord  ? "  And 
so  you  look  for  your  subject.  You  know  what  you  are 
after  the  whole  time.  It  is  exactly  like  the  watch- 
maker, who  has  opened  your  watch  and  discovered  that 
something  is  wrong.  He  turns  to  his  bench  and  pokes 
around  among  his  tools,  but  cannot  find  what  he 
wants ;  he  looks  everywhere  for  it,  and  at  last,  there  it 
is,  and  he  takes  it  and  uses  it,  for  it  is  the  only  instru- 
ment exactly  fitted  to  do  just  the  thing  he  wanted  to 
do  in  that  watch.  Now,  in  preaching  to  a  congrega- 
tion there  are  living  men  to  reach;  and  there  is  a 
particular  way  of  doing  it  that  you  want  to  get  at. 
You  search  for  it  in  the  Bible;  and  you  make  your 
sermon  to  answer  the  end.  This  is  psychological  preach- 
ing, drawing  from  your  own  gradually  augmenting  in- 
telligence and  experience,  which  will  make  you  skilful 
in  the  ends  you  want  to  effect. 

MAX-BUILDING,   THE   PREACHER'S   BUSINESS. 

I  will  add  only  one  thing  more,  for  I  shall  resume 
this  subject ;  and  that  is,  that  I  have  participated  with 


20  LECTTKES   ON  PREACHING. 

a  great  many  in  one  experience.  I  have  been  under 
the  penumbra  of  doubt.  I  look  upon  the  progress  of 
physical  science  and  see  the  undermining  influences  that 
are  going  on.  I  see  that  probably  churches  as  they  are 
now  constituted  will  not  stand,  and  that  a  vast  amount 
of  what  is  called  technical  theology  will  have  to  un- 
dergo great  mutations.  I  know  there  are  many  minds 
in  the  darkness  of  cloud  who  ask,  Is  there  a  God  ? 
or,  Is  it  a  Pantheistic  God  ?  or,  Is  there  a  revelation  ? 
Can  there  be  an  inspiration  in  this  world?  The  whole 
of  this  reacts  on  the  community,  so  that  a  young  man 
who  is  thinking  about  preaching  may  say  to  himself, 
"  I  will  not  go  into  a  profession  which  seems  likely  to 
be  overthrown  before  long ;  where,  in  a  few  years,  all 
my  employment  will  drop  out  of  my  hands,  scepticism 
is  prevailing  to  such  an  extent." 

Young  gentlemen,  I  -\vant  to  tell  you  my  belief  upon 
that  point.  True  preaching  is  yet  to  come.  Of  all  the 
professions  for  young  men  to  look  forward  to,  I  do  not 
know  another  one  that  seems  to  me  to  have  such  scope 
before  it  in  the  future  as  preaching.  I  mean  this. 
There  is  one  fact  that  is  not  going  to  be  overturned  by 
science ;  and  that  is  the  necessity  of  human  develop- 
ment, and  the  capability  there  is  in  man  of  being 
opened  up  and  improved.  If  there  is  one  thing  that 
can  be  substantiated  more  clearly  than  another,  it  is 
that  the  development  indicated  by  Christianity  is  right 
along  the  line  of  nature.  Men  walk  from  the  fleshly 
up  to  the  spiritual  If  there  can  be  one  thing  shown 
to  be  more  true  than  another,  it  is  that  Christian- 
ity is  walking  toward  spiritual  love  as  the  polar  star, 
the  grand  centre.  If  there  is  one  thing  in  this  world 


WHAT   IS   PREACHING  ?  21 

more  worthy  of  being  worked  than  another,  it  is  the 
human  soul.  And  if  there  is  one  business  better  worth 
a  man's  thought  than  another,  it  is  a  profession  that 
undertakes  to  educate  men  along  this  common  line,  of 
nature  and  Christianity  together,  and  lift  them  up  from 
basilar  conditions  and  methods  to  the  coronal  heights 
where  understanding,  moral  sentiment,  taste,  imagina- 
tion, and  love  are  intermingled. 

That  is  the  business  of  the  preacher.  It  is  not  to 
grind  a  church.  It  is  not  to  turn  a  wheel.  It  is  not 
to  cuff  about  the  controversies  of  theology.  It  is  a 
living  work,  —  building- work.  If  you  are  to  be  true 
preachers,  you  are  to  be  man-builders ;  and  in  the  jiays 
yet  to  come  there  is  to  be  no  labor  so  worthy  of  a  man's 
ambition  as  that  of  building  men  worthily,  that  at 
last  you  may  present  them  spotless  before  the  throne 
of  God. 

« 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWEKS. 
Now  for  questions,  if  you  want  to  ask  any. 

Q.  In  keeping  an  eye  upon  the  congregation,  and  looking  for- 
ward to  a  ministry  which  may  be  for  years,  would  you  not  think 
best  to  follow  in  the  general  system  of  thought  which  we  call 
Calvinistic  ?  Can  we  pass  by  the  teachings  of  the  schools  and 
construct  our  own  theology  ?  Or  shall  we  have  for  a  background, 
for  a  corner-stone,  if  you  please,  of  all  our  systems  of  thought  and 
preaching,  that  system  which  is  called  Calvinistic  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  I  admire  the  discretion  with  which 
you  put  that  question.  If  you  had  asked  me  whether 
you  ought  to  follow  that  system  which  is  Calvinism,  I 
should  say,  No.  But  if  you  ask  whether  you  ought 
to  follow  that  system  which  is  called  Calvinism,  I  say 


22  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

it  is  very  well  to  follow  that ;  for  I  have  noticed  what 
that  which  is  called  Calvinism  may  be  defined  to  be. 
For  instance,  I  consider  myself  Calvinistic,  you  know ; 
and  in  this  way :  I  believe  what  John  Calvin  would  have 
believed  if  he  had  lived  in  my  time  and  seen  things  as 
I  see  them.  My  first  desire  is  to  know  what  is  true ; 
and  then  I  am  very  glad  if  John  Calvin  agrees  with  me, 
but  if  he  don't,  so  much  the  worse  for  him !  While  I 
accept  the  work  that  God  did  by  him  in  the  interpre- 
tation and  in  the  systematization  of  truth,  —  and  I 
shall  have  a  good  deal  to  say  about  Calvinism  and  in 
favor  of  Calvinism  before  I  get  through,  in  respect  to 
its  Doctrines  and  its  historic  work,  —  yet  it  seems  to  me 
that  I  have  the  same  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  John  Cal- 
vin had,  the  same  Paul,  the  same  John,  and  nothing 
that  hinders  me  in  any  way  from  looking  right  into 
their  hearts  and  forming  my  own  idea  of  what  they 
were  and  how  they  felt,  just  as  he  did ;  with  the  addi- 
tional advantage  that  I  have  in  the  light  of  hundreds 
of  years'  unfolding  of  the  Christian  Church  which  he 
had  not,  for  he  constructed  his  system  under  the  drip- 
pings of  the  old  Eoman  hierarchy.  Besides,  John  Cal- 
vin had  an  inordinate  share  of  intellect  and  not  half 
his  share  of  heart.  Have  I  answered  sufficiently  ? 

Q.  If  you  were  requested  to  preach  on  Election  and  Predesti- 
nation in  a  church  whose  members  held  the  old  faith  on  these 
points,  how  would  you  meet  that  request  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  I  should  preach  it  as  I  find  it  in 
the  New  Testament.  I  should  not  ask  the  catechisms, 
which  are  helps  to  those  whom  they  help.  I  should 
take  it  as  I  find  it  in  the  New  Testament,  —  that  God 
has  a  plan  in  the  world ;  that  he  works  according  to 


WHAT  IS   PREACHING  ?  23 

laws  ;  and  that  natural  laws  are  divine  decrees.  I  very 
frankly  admit  that  those  truths  can  be  stated  in  a  way 
so  as  to  be  very  offensive  and  discouraging ;  but  I  thank- 
fully believe  that  they  can  be  stated  in  another  way  so 
as  to  be  the"  foundation  and  groundwork  of  hope  and 
courage.  Whatever  else  you  do,  don't  slam  the  door 
of  possibility  in  any  man's  face.  Don't  hold  up  any 
of  the  truths  of  the  gospel  in  such  a  way  that  the  man 
who  looks  at  them  shall  say  it  is  not  possible  to  be 
saved.  The  teaching  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  was* 
that  God  wanted  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  made  over- 
tures to  them ;  that  there  is  a  possibility  of  every  man's 
being  regenerated  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Build  up  such  a  spiritual  superstructure  that  every  little 
child  shall  feel  it  to  be  easier  to  live.a  Christian  life  than 
an  ungodly  life. 

Q.  If  you  went  into  a  neighborhood  where  Universalism  or 
Spiritualism  prevailed,  would  you  preach  against  them,  or  pass 
them  by  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  I  cannot  answer  that  question  pre- 
cisely, it  would  depend  on  so  many  considerations ;  the 
first  of  which  might  be  how  far  the  preacher  were 
himself  infected  with  it.  Secondly,  what  class  of  the 
community  was  infected.  If  the  thinking  class,  and 
the  influential,  three  or  four  families,  I  might  take  one 
course  ;  but  if  it  was  only  the  ignorant,  and  those  that 
had  no  influence  upon  society,  I  might  take  another 
course.  That  is  a  theme  which  I  shall  take  up  more 
fully  by  and  by,  in  speaking  of  entering  a  new  com- 
munity ;  but  I  am  quite  willing  to  consider  tho  ques- 
tion now,  for  I  do  not  fear  to  exhaust  the  subject. 

I  recollect  hearing  my  father  say  that  when  he  went 


24  LECTURES   ON   PEEACHING. 

to  East  Hampton  and  began  to  preach  there,  he  was 
surrounded  by  the  influence  of  French  infidelity,  and  the 
leading  men  of  that  community  were  infidels.  Said  he : 
"  I  did  not  undertake  to  argue  with  them.  I  preached 
one  or  two  great  sermons,  to  show  them  I  had  big  guns 
and  was  not  afraid  of  them ;  and  after  that  I  preached 
right  to  their  consciences ;  and  the  result  was  that  a 
great  revival  of  religion  came  up  there,  and  after  that  I 
never  heard  anything  about  infidelity."  One  of  the 
"most  affecting  little  things  came  to  my  knowledge  the 
other  day.  There  was  one  man  in  that  congregation  who 
was  never  converted,  who  never  gave  up  ostensibly  his 
infidelity  ;  although  he  loved  my  father  very  much  in- 
deed, yet  he  never  seemed  to  be  brought  into  the  king- 
dom during  his  time  there.  There  was  one  little  child, 
Harriet,  born  into  our  family,  which  after  a  short  time 
fell  asleep.  This  little  baby  was  the  only  tiling  we  left 
behind  in  moving  from  the  place.  So  this  man,  twenty 
or  twenty-five  years  after  father  had  gone  away,  said  one 
day  to  his  wife,  "  I  cannot  bear  to  have  that  little  child 
of  Dr.  Beecher's  left  there  all  alone  " ;  and  he  had  the 
child  taken  up,  and  put  it  in  his  own  ground,  where  his 
wife  now  lies  on  one  side  and  he  upon  the  other,  and 
the  little  baby  snugly  gathered  in  their  bosoms  there. 
Such  was  the  effect  produced  upon  his  mind  by  my 
father's  preaching  and  example ;  and  although  he  did 
not  outwardly  come  into  the  community  of  the  faith, 
the  impression  never  wore  off,  and  I  should  not  wonder 
if  he  wrere  in  heaven. 

Q.  If  you  went  into  a  neighborhood  in  which  there  were  petty 
troubles  among  families,  would  you  preach  against  such  things  ? 

MB.  BEECHER.  —  Generally  speaking,  meddling  with 


WHAT  IS   PREACHING  ?  25 

families  is  dangerous  business ;  and  as  it  is  dangerous 
personally,  so  it  is  dangerous  pulpitly  ;  inasmuch  as  you 
would  instantly,  for  the  most  part,  produce  sides,  and 
they  would  take  your  sermon  and  turn  it  into  artillery 
to  fire  at  each  other,  backward  and  forward.  No;  if  you 
want  to  cure  one  malign  feeling,  recollect  that  our  feel- 
ings act,  as  it  were,  in  poles  ;  that  there  is  an  antagonistic 
feeling.  If  a  child  cries,  the  nurse,  who  is  a  better  phi- 
losopher than  many  wiser  heads,  makes  the  child  laugh. 
She  makes  up  faces,  makes  herself  grotesque  ;  the  child 
struggles  against  it  for  a  while,  but  finally  bursts  out 
laughing,  and  that  moment  the  crying  and  the  anger 
are  all  gone.  Two  opposite  feelings  cannot  coexist. 
If  anger  is  up,  good-nature  is  down.  If  you  want  to 
get  anger  down,  don't  try  to  push  it  down, —  that  won't 
do ;  but  go  to  the  other  end  and  pry  up  good-nature. 

Q.  Going  into  a  small  place,  where  there  are  few  educating 
influences,  would  not  you  preach  a  fair  proportion  of  educating 
sermons  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Is  not  the  arousing  influence  of  the 
revival  system  an  educating  one  ?  Is  there  any  educa- 
tion that  proceeds  so  fast  as  that  which  ta,kes  place  un- 
der a  warm  and  newly  developed  moral  feeling  ?  Men 
in  the  ordinary  stage  are  like  robins'  eggs  in  the  nest ; 
you  cannot  feed  them.  Let  the  robin  sit  on  them  a  lit- 
tle while,  and  by  and  by  there  will  be  nothing  but  four 
mouths,  and  as  fast  as  you  put  in  worms  they  will  gulp 
them.  To  educate  man  in  the  cold  and  natural  state 
is  just  like  feeding  eggs.  Warm  them,  and  give  them 
life,  and  they  will  eat. 

Q.  You  speak  of  presenting  the  truth  as  a  man  thinks  it  and 
feels  it  and  lives  it  himself.  Is  there  a  danger  connected  with 


26  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

that,  of  being  too  egotistical  in  our  preaching,  so  that  when  we 
present  a  truth  as  we  feel  it  and  think  it,  men  will  say,  "  Here  is 
a  man  that  professes  to  have  a  great  deal  deeper  thoughts,  and  a 
great  deal  deeper  feelings  than  we  have,"  and  an  antagonistic  feck 
ing  will  be  aroused  against  us  ?  How  can  that  be  overcome  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  You  will  never  preach  so  wisely  or 
so  well,  if  you  preach  continuously,  as  to  guard  against 
all  these  dangers.  You  cannot  help  yourself.  If  a  sur- 
geon were  ten  times  as  skilful  as  he  is,  and  he  had  to 
probe  a  wound,  he  could  not  probe  it  so  that  it  would 
be  a  luxury  to  the  patient.  If  anything  is  to  be  cut  off, 
or  tied  up,  or  changed  radically,  changed  in  such  a  way 
that  the  pride  must  come  down,  it  will  cause  pain.  It 
is  not  easy  to  take  the  yoke  or  the  burden  of  Christ,  in 
the  taking  of  it ;  it  is  only  after  you  have  got  your  neck 
accustomed  to  it  that  the  yoke  is  easy  and  the  burden  is 
light.  No  matter  how  wisely  or  well  you  put  it,  there 
will  be  trouble,  and  it  will  be  just  in  proportion  to  the 
disturbance  you  make.  And  the  disturbance  will  be  ac- 
cording to  the  wisdom  and  the  love  which  you  manifest. 
No  man  is  such  a  master  of  his  business  that  he  can  go 
into  a  community  and  preach,  saying  to  himself,  "  This 
is  ideally  perfect."  Your  mode  of  presenting  the  truth 
will  be  imperfect.  Your  partialisms  are  full  of  danger. 
For  instance,  if  you  are  a  quiet  man,  you  will  have  a 
tendency  to  preach  so  as  not  to  arouse  any  feeling.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  you  are  pugnacious  and  energetic, 
your  sermons  will  be  apt  to  be  full  of  lances  and  thrusts. 
There  is  a  great  deal  about  a  man's  personality  that 
has  got  to  be  educated.  If  one  is  frank,  genial,  warm- 
hearted, and  if  he  is  going  to  be  a  minister,  and  pulls 
down  his  face  and  says,  "Now  I  must  walk  with  the 


WHAT  IS  PKEACHIXG  ?  27 

utmost  precision,"  and  he  begins  to  walk  just  so,  and  to 
administer  just  so,  thinking  that  coldness  and  sanctity 
have  some  peculiar  relation  to  each  other,  he  does  vio- 
lence to  his  nature.  When  God  made  him  warm-hearted 
and  gushing,  he  gave  him  a  power  with  which  to  do  his 
work.  Take  your  strongest  point  and  make  the  most 
of  it.  The  modifications  and  limitations  of  this  will 
come  up  for  more  remark  hereafter. 

Q.  Don't  you  think  it  is  a  good  plan  to  preach  a  variety  of 
sermons,  intellectual  and  emotional  ? 

ME.  BEECHEE.  —  Xever  two  alike,  if  you  can  help  it. 
I  heard  described  the  other  day  a  style  of  preaching 
which  was  likened  to  the  way  they  are  said  to  build 
ships  down  in  Maine.  They  build  them  down  there 
by  the  mile ;  and  when  they  have  an  order  they  cut 
off  so  much,  round  up  a  stern  and  a  bow,  and  send  it. 
Thus  some  sermons  seem  to  have  been  built*  by  the 
mile.  There  seems  to  be  no  earthly  reason  why  the 
preacher  should  begin  in  one  place  rather  than  an- 
other, or  why  he  should  stop  in  one  place  rather  than 
another.  He  could  preach  ten  hours,  if  not  ordered  to 
stop ;  and  wherever  he  stops  he  is  ready  to  begin 
again ;  and  so  to  go  on  until  the  judgment-day.  That 
kind  of  iteration  is  the  most  hurtful  of  all  things. 
A  man  keeps  a  boarding-house,  and  the  boarders  like 
bacon  for  breakfast.  So  he  gives  them  bacon  on  Mon- 
day, and  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  and  Thursday,  and 
Friday,  and  Saturday,  and  Sunday,  and  Monday,  and 
Tuesday,  —  until  by  and  by  one  of  them  comes  to  him 
and  says,  "  Mr.  Jacobs,  we  like  bacon  pretty  well, 
but  lately  we  have  got  tired  of  it ;  we  should  like 
something  else."  "  Well,  what  will  you  have  ? "  "  Let 


28  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

us  have  pork  and  beans."  So  he  gives  them  pork  and 
beans  on  Monday,  pork  and  beans  on  Tuesday,  and  on 
Wednesday,  and  keeps  feeding  them  on  pork  and  beans 
until  they  protest  again.  Now,  everybody  gets  stale  on 
any  one  thing.  Seventeen  sermons  on  the  doctrine  of 
retribution  as  it  is  found  in  nature  rather  tire  a  man 
out.  Mrs.  Stowe  said,  when  she  returned  from  Germany, 
that  she  really  enjoyed  the  German  church  singing  until 
they  reached  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  stanza,  but 
she  generally  got  tired  then ;  and  it  is  about  so  with 
preaching. 


II. 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PREACHER. 

February  1,  1872. 

,  LOQUEXCE  has  been  defined,  sometimes,  as 
the  art  of  moving  men  by  speech.  Preach- 
ing has  this  additional  quality,  that  it  is  the 
art  of  moving  men  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
life.  It  is  the  art  of  inspiring  them  toward  a  nobler 
manhood. 

In  thinking  about  the  preparation  for  the  Christian 
ministry,  we  are  apt  to  regard  the  sermon  as  the  chief 
thing;  and  certainly,  in  the  whole  series  of  instru- 
ments, it  does  rank  highest,  for  the  power  of  the  man, 
all  that  he  has  been  doing  collaterally,  culminates  in 
that.  After  all,  there  is  a  world  of  encouragement 
for  men  that  cannot  preach.  If  a  preacher  is  a  true 
man  (and  a  true  man  spreads  out  and  covers  with 
himself  all  times  and  all  places),  he  preaches  not 
only  while  he  is  in  the  pulpit ;  but  just  as  much 
when  he  is  conversing  with  a  little  child  upon  the 
sidewalk,  when  he  is  in  a  social  company,  or  when 
he  is  out  on  a  sportive  or  picnic  occasion  with  his 
people.  A  true  minister  is  a  man  whose  manhpod 
itself  is  a  strong  and  influential  argument  with  his 


30  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

people.  He  lives  in  such  relations  with  God,  and  in 
such  genuine  sympathy  with  man,  that  it  is  a  pleas- 
ure to  be  under  the  unconscious  influence  of  such  a 
mind.  Just  as,  lying  on  a  couch  in  a  summer's  even- 
ing, you  hear  from  a  neighboring  house  the  low 
breathing  of  an  instrument  of  music,  so  far  away  that 
you  can  only  hear  its  palpitation,  but  cannot  discern 
the  exact  tune  that  is  played,  and  are  soothed  by  it 
and  drawn  nearer  to  hear  more  :  thus  the  true  Chris- 
tian minister  is  himself  so  inspiring,  so  musical,  there 
is  so  much  of  the  divine  element  in  him,  rendered 
homelike  by  incarnation  with  his  disposition,  brought 
down  to  the  level  of  man's  understanding,  that  wher- 
ever he  goes  little  children  want  to  see  him,  plain 
people  want  to  be  with  him ;  everybody  says  when  he 
comes,  "  Good ! "  and  everybody  says  when  he  goes 
away,  "  I  wish  he  had  stayed  longer"  ;  all  who  come  in 
contact  with  him  are  inclined  to  live  a  better  life. 
Manhood  is  the  best  sermon.  It  is  good  to  fill  the 
minds  of  people  with  the  nobleness  and  sweetness  of 
the  thing  itself  to  which  you  would  fain  draw  them. 
"Go  preach"  was  no  more  authoritative  than  "Let  your 
light  so  shine  that  men,  seeing  your  good  works,  shall 
glorify  your  Father." 

There  is  no  form  of  preaching  that  can  afford  to  dis- 
pense with  the  preacher's  moral  beauty.  He  may  be  as 
homely  as  you  please,  physically ;  as  awkward  as  you 
please ;  but  you  will  find  in  the  true  preacher  some- 
where an  element  of  beauty ;  for  God  works  always 
toward  beauty,  which  is  one  sign  of  perfection,  so  that, 
though  not  an  essential  element,  beauty  is  still  a  sign 
and  token  of  the  higher  forms  of  creation. 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PREACHER.  31 

I  endeavored  to  impress  you  yesterday  with  the  idea 
that  preaching  is  the  exertion  of  the  living  force  of  men 
upon  living  men  for  the  sake  of  developing  in  them  a 
higher  manhood.  I  say  a  higher  manhood  rather  than 
a  higher  life,  because  I  do  not  wish  to  separate  a  Chris- 
tian life  as  something  distinct  from  the  movement  of 
the  whole  being.  Men  are  not  like  musical  organs  of 
many  stops,  one  of  which  is  Eeligion,  as  something 
separable  and  distinct  from  the  rest  of  their  nature.  Ke- 
ligion  is  harmonized  human  nature.  It  includes  every 
element  which  manhood  includes.  It  is  wholesome- 
ness  of  soul.  It  is  manhood,  on  a  higher  plane.  It 
includes  the  physical,  the  social,  the  intellectual,  the 
aesthetic,  the  moral,  the  spiritual  The  whole  man  work- 
ing in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  his  condition,  —  that 
is  the  New  Testament  idea  of  a  Christian  man.  And 
that  which  we  undertake  to  do  by  preaching,  whether 
in  its  technical  or  special  form,  by  the  delivery  of  a  ser- 
mon or  in  its  collateral  and  more  diffusible  forms  by 
social  intercourse,  is  to  mould  and  shape  men  into  a 
nobler  manhood,  Jesus  Christ  being  the  highest  ideal 
and  exemplar.  Our  ministry  is  effectual  in  propor- 
tion as  we  do  that,  and  deficient  in  the  proportion  in 
which  we  fail  to  do  it. 

SHOW-SERMONS. 

A  good  many  young  men,  beginning  to  preach,  feel 
that  they  don't  know  what  to  do.  They  naturally  fall 
back  upon  their  note-books,  upon  the  development  of 
some  system  of  truth.  They  undertake  to  present  to 
their  people  topic  after  topic  based  upon  great  gospel 
themes.  And  of  course  they  can  do  no  better  than  that 


32  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

in  the  beginning.  Still,  that  is  rather  preparing  to 
preach  than  preaching.  It  is  like  a  man  who  is  prac- 
tising with  his  rifle  at  a  target  that  he  does  not  see, 
who  hits  by  accident  if  he  hits,  rather  than  by  deliber- 
ate aim.  You  cannot  expect  a  man  to  do  better  until 
he  has  learned.  It  is  no  easy  thing  for  one  to  be  in 
such  familiar  possession  of  the  great  moral  truths  re- 
.vealed  in  the  Bible,  and  in  such  familiar  knowledge  of 
men's  natures  and  dispositions,  that  he  can  take  of  the 
one  and  fit  it  to  the  other  almost  by  intuition.  But 
intuition  is  only  a  name  for  superior  habit. 

No  one  should  be  discouraged  in  the  beginning  of 
his  ministry,  therefore,  if  he  finds  himself  running 
short  of  subjects ;  preaching  a  great  deal  and  accom- 
plishing but  very  little ;  having  comparatively  a  light 
hold  upon  truths,  and  not  being  able  by  these  truths 
to  grapple  men  effectually.  Every  one  has  an  ideal  in 
his  mind.  He  thinks  of  Whitefield ;  and  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  with  the  man  pulling  at  his  coat-tails  and 
trying  to  stop  that  terrible  burst  of  statement  and  de- 
nunciation that  was  crushing  the  congregation.  Every 
young  man  who  is  aspiring  wants  to  do  great  things, 
and  to  preach  great  sermons.  Greal;  sermons,  young 
gentlemen,  ninety-nine  times  in  a  hundred,  are  nui- 
sances. They  are  like  steeples  without  any  bells  in 
them ;  things  stuck  up  high  in  the  air,  serving  for  or- 
nament, attracting  observation,  but  sheltering  nobody, 
warming  nobody,  helping  nobody.  It  is  not  these  great 
sermons  that  any  man  should  propose  to  himself  as 
models.  Of  course,  if  now  and  then  in  legitimate,  hon- 
est, and  manly  work,  you  are  in  the  right  mood,  and 
are  brought  into  a  state  of  excitement  of  which  a  great 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PREACHER.  33 

sermon  is  the  result,  preach  it,  and  don't  be  afraid.  But 
great  sermons  will  come  of  themselves,  when  they  are 
worth  anything.  Don't  seek  them;  for  that  of  itself 
is  almost  enough  to  destroy  their  value. 

I  do  not  say  this  for  the  purpose  of  abating  one  par- 
ticle of  your  studiousness,  or  the  earnestness  with  which 
you  labor.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  there  may 
not  be  some  indulgence  at  times  in  that  direction  ;  that 
is  to  say,  if  you  have  written  a  sermon  that  has  done 
good,  it  may  do  good  again.  But  I  do  say  that,  gener- 
ally speaking,  show-sermons  are  the  temptation  of  the 
Devil.  They  do  not  lie  in  the  plane  of  common,  true 
Christian,  ministerial  work.  They  are  not  natural  to 
a  man  whose  heart  is  moved  with  genuine  sympathy 
for  man,  and  who  is  inspired  in  that  sympathy  by  the 
fire  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  There  is  a  false  greatness 
in  sermons  as  well  as  in  men.  Vanity,  Ambition,  Ped- 
antry, are  demons  that  love  to  clothe  themselves  in 
rhetorical  garments,  like  angels  of  light ! 

SYMPATHY  WITH   MEN. 

In  speaking  of  bringing  to  bear  upon  men  a  living 
force  for  their  exaltation  in  the  spiritual  life,  I  want  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  very  natural  substitutes  that 
men  take  for  this.  I  know  men  of  great  learning,  —  I 
could  mention  their  names,  and  you  would  recognize 
them  as  men  of  great  ability  in  their  pastoral  lives,  — 
men  of  the  greatest  breadth  of  thought,  and  really  and 
interiorly  men  of  profound  emotion  ;  but  their  ministry 
has  never  been  very  fruitful ;  that  is,  they  have  never 
moved  either  the  multitudes,  or,  very  largely,  the  indi- 
viduals, of  the  community  where  they  have  been.  I 
2*  c 


34  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

have  thought  I  saw  the  reason  of  it  in  this :  that  their 
sympathy  ran  almost  exclusively  toward  God.  They 
were  on  God's  side  altogether.  They  were  always 
vindicating  God.  They  were  upholding  the  Divine 
government.  And  they  produced,  if  I  may  say  so,  the 
feeling  that  they  were  God's  attorneys,  that  they  were 
special  pleaders  on  that  side.  I  would  not  say  that  a 
man  should  not  be  in  sympathy  with  God,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  God  himself  is  in  sympathy  with 
sinful  and  erring  men,  that  he  broke  down  all  the  bril- 
liance and  glory  of  the  heavenly  estate  that  he  might 
mingle  himself  among  them;  and  no  preacher  is  the 
true  agent  of  God,  or  really  takes  sides  with  God,  who 
does  not  sympathize  with  men,  but  who  simply  holds 
up  the  majesty  and  sternness  and  power  and  glory  of 
the  Divine  government. 

I  have  seen  men  who  all  the  while  produced  the 
impression,  GOD  —  GOD  —  GOD  ;  there  was  nothing  in 
them  that  breathed  of  gentleness,  sweetness,  or  sym- 
pathy, —  the  very  things  that  characterized  Christ,  and 
which  were  in  him  the  interpretation  of  the  real  in- 
terior Godhead ;  those  things  were  absent  from  their 
ministry;  and,  if  you  will  not  misunderstand  it,  I 
would  say  that  they  failed  because  they  had  too  exclu- 
sive a  sympathy  with  God. 

Then  I  have  seen  another  class  of  men  who  were  so 
constructed  and  educated  that  they  had  an  intense 
sympathy  with  ideas,  with  organized  thought,  religious 
system,  or  philosophy ;  who  studied  profoundly,  who 
constructed  ably,  who  had  much  that  was  instructive 
in  their  work.  But  after  all,  while  everybody  felt  the 
strength  of  their  sermons,  almost  nobody  was  moved  or 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PREACHER.  35 

changed  by  them.  And  I  have  seen  ministers  with  not 
one  quarter  of  this  equipment  really  lift  and  inspire  a 
congregation,  producing  an  effect  which,  with  a  proper 
following  up,  might  have  been  permanently  crystallized 
into  life  and  disposition. 

There  should  be  in  you  a  strong  sympathy  with  the 
intellectual  elements  of  the  ministry;  but  it  should 
never  overlie,  and  certainly  should  not  absorb  or  im- 
pede,  the  more  legitimate  sympathy  you  are  to  have 
with  men  themselves.  Eeflect  for  one  moment  what 
must  have  been  the  state  of  mind  of  the  man  who 
wrote  such  a  thing  as  this  :  — 

"  For  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth  us  the  apostles  last,  as  it 
were  appointed  to  death ;  for  we  are  made  a  spectacle  unto  the 
world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men.  We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake, 
but  ye  are  wise  in  Christ." 

Paul  was  intensely  proud,  sensitive  as  a  thermometer 
is  to  heat ;  and  you  will  see  that  under  all  the  sweet- 
ness, the  efflorescence  of  the  Christian  life,  there  is  still 
the  principle  of  egotism :  — 

"  For  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth  us  the  apostles  last,  as  it 
were  appointed  to  death ;  for  we  are  made  a  spectacle  unto  the 
world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men.  We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake ; 
but  ye  are  wise  in  Christ ;  we  are  weak,  but  ye  are  strong ;  ye 
are  honorable,  but  we  are  despised.  Even  unto  this  present  hour 
we  both  hunger  and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are  buffeted,  and 
have  no  certain  dwelling-place ;  and  labor,  working  with  our  own 
hands ;  being  reviled,  we  bless ;  being  persecuted,  we  suffer  it  ; 
being  defamed,  we  entreat ;  we  are  made  as  the  filth  of  the  world, 
and  are  the  offscouring  of  all  things  unto  this  day." 

You  will  recollect  other  passages  in  which  he  said 
that  to  the  Jew  he  became  a  Jew  that  he  might  win 
Jews  ;  and  to  those  without  law,  as  without  law,  that 


36  LECTUEES  ON   PREACHING. 

he  might  bring  them  all  to  God.  There  never  was  such 
a  manifestation  of  the  \villowiness  of  a  man  of  absolute 
steel  in  disposition.  He  was  one  of  stern  personal 
identity ;  and  yet,  by  the  love  of  Christ  and  by  the 
sympathy  he  had  with  men,  he  said,  —  or  would  have 
said,  had  he  spoken  in  modern  English,  —  "I  know 
how  to  fit  myself  to  every  sinuosity  and  rugosity  of 
every  single  disposition  with  which  I  have  to  deal ; 
you  cannot  find  me  a  man  so  deep  or  so  high,  so  blunt 
or  so  sharp,  but  I  would  take  the  shape  of  that  man's 
disposition,  in  order  to  come  into  sympathy  with  him, 
if  by  so  doing  I  could  lift  him  to  a  higher  and  a  nobler 
plane  of  life." 

When  I  see  men  standing  in  the  royalty  of  ordina- 
tion, who  have  been  made  golden  candlesticks  of  grace, 
who  feel  what  is  called  "the  dignity  of  their  profes- 
sion," and  move  up  and  down  in  life,  neatly  receiving 
the  praise  and  deference  of  everybody  round  about 
them,  and  requesting  men  who  pass  to  look  upon  God's 
ordained  ministers,  I  think  by  contrast  of  Paul,  with 
that  diffusiveness  that  he  gave  himself,  that  univer- 
sal adaptation  of  himself,  —  who  mothered  everybody, 
wherever  he  went.  There  is  not  a  thing  so  menial  in 
the  kitchen,  there  is  not  a  thing  so  distasteful  in  the 
nursery,  there  is  not  a  thing  so  offensive  to  every  sense, 
that  the  mother  does  not  say,  over  her  sick  child, 
"  Now  let  me  do  it ;  should  the  child  die,  it  would  be  a 
grief  to  think  that  anybody  did  these  things  but  me." 
The  mother  makes  haste  to  do  those  most  offensive 
tilings  for  her  darling  child  because  she  loves  it.  And 
so  the  true  man  has  that  vital  syni]>;itliy  with  men,  that 
the- re  is  notliing  that  he  would  not  become  or  do,  if  by 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PREACHER.  37 

so  doing  he  could  get  hold  of  them  and  make  better 
men  of  them,  that,  as  Paul  says,  he  may  present  them 
faultless  before  God. 

PERSONAL  CHARACTER  OF  THE  PREACHER. 

Your  work,  therefore,  as  a  Christian  minister,  let  me 
say  as  the  first  point  I  want  to  make  this  afternoon,  in 
addition  to  what  I  said  yesterday,  requires  that  you 
should,  first  of  all,  see  to  the  elevation  of  character  of 
the  man  that  preaches.  He  it  is  who  ought  to  blossom. 
You  cannot  "become  a  good  minister  simply  by  being 
expert  in  theology.  You  cannot  without  it,  either ;  the- 
ology must  be  practically  or  technically  learned.  But 
you  cannot  be  a  true  preacher  with  this  equipment 
alone.  A  dictionary  is  not  literature,  though  there  is  no 
literature  without  the  contents  of  the  dictionary  in  it. 
You  have  got  yourself  to  bring  up  to  the  ideal  of  the 
New  Testament.  A  part  of  your  preparation  for  the 
Christian  ministry  consists  in  such  a  ripening  of  your 
disposition  that  you  yourselves  shall  be  exemplars  of 
what  you  preach.  And  by  an  exemplar  I  do  not  mean 
simply  that  you  must  be  a  man  who  does  not  cheat  his 
neighbor,  or  who  unites  in  himself  all  the  scrupulosi- 
ties of  the  neighborhood ;  but  a  minister  ought  to  be 
entirely,  inside  and  out,  a  pattern  man ;  not  a  pattern 
man  in  abstention,  but  a  man  of  grace,  generosity,  mag- 
nanimity, peaceableness,  sweetness,  though  of  high 
spirit,  and  self-defensory  power  when  required ;  a  man 
who  is  broad,  and  wide,  and  full  of  precious  contents. 
You  must  come  up  to  a  much  higher  level  than  com- 
mon manhood,  if  you  mean  to  be  a  preacher.  You  are 
not  to  be  a  needle  to  carry  a  thin  thread,  and  sew  up 


38  LECTUKES  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

old  rags  all  your  life  long.  That  is  not  the  thing  to 
which  you  are  called.  You  are  called  to  be  men  of 
such  nobleness  and  largeness  and  gentleness,  so  Paul- 
ine, and  so  Christlike,  that  in  all  your  intercourse  with 
the  little  children,  and  with  the  young  people  of  your 
charge,  you  shall  produce  a  feeling  that  they  would 
rather  be  with  the  minister  than  any  gentleman  in  the 
State,  —  always  fresh,  always  various,  always  intent  on 
the  well-being  of  others,  well  understanding  them  and 
their  pleasures  and  sympathies,  promoting  enjoyment, 
promoting  instruction,  promoting  all  that  is  noble  in  its 
noblest  form  and  purest  Christlikeness,  —  that  is  what 
it  is  your  business  to  be. 

Now,  with  that  disposition  and  tendency  well  estab- 
lished in  yourselves,  and  with  sympathy  established 
between  yourselves  and  your  parishioners,  niy  young 
friends,  you  will  never  lack  for  sermons.  If  your 
sermons  are  the  reproductions  simply  of  systematic 
theology,  you  will  lack  for  them,  —  thank  God !  You 
may  have  sermons  on  theology,  on  technical  theology  ; 
do  not  suppose  that  I  am  undervaluing  them.  I  am 
only  undervaluing  the  idolatry  of  them.  By  theology  I 
understand  simply  the  philosophy  of  religion,  —  accu- 
rate thinking,  systematic,  articulated  thinking;  and 
that  I  believe  in — in  its  place. 

But  this  I  say,  that  there  is  no  theology  in  the  world 
that  is  anything  more  than  an  instrument.  It  is  a 
mere  tool  to  work  with,  an  artillery  to  fight  with. 
Sermons  are  mere  tools ;  and  the  business  that  you 
have  in  hand  is  not  making  sermons,  or  preaching  ser- 
mons, —  it  is  saving  men.  Let  this  come  up  before  you 
eo  frequently  that  it  shall  never  be  forgotten,  that  none 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PKEACHER.  39 

of  these  things  should  gain  ascendency  over  this  prime 
controlling  element  of  your  lives,  that  you  are  to  save 
men. 

And  the  first  thing  you  have  to  do  is  to  present  to 
them  what  you  want  them  to  be.  That  is,  if  you  are  to 
preach  to  them  faith,  the  best  definition  you  can  give 
of  faith  is  to  exercise  it.  If  you  wish  to  teach  them 
the  nature  of  sympathy,  take  them  by  the  hand.  Talk 
with  the  young  men,  and  let  them  get  acquainted  with 
you  ;  and  they  will  soon  find  out  what  sympathy  means. 
If  you  would  explain  what  true  benevolence  is,  be  your- 
selves before  them  that  which  you  want  them  to  un- 
derstand and  imitate.  What  does  the  apostle  tell  us  ? 
"  Ye  are  our  epistles,  known  and  read  of  all  men,"  said 
Paul ;  and  he  could  say  it,  and  so  could  the  whole  primi- 
tive church,  and  so  can  we  yet  to-day.  If  it  were  a  good 
thing  to  do,  I  could  pick  out  to-day  the  examples  from 
my  church,  and  say,  "  This  is  what  I  mean  by  zeal  tem- 
pered with  prudence  ;  that  is  what  I  mean  by  the  sweet 
forbearance  of  love  ;  if  you  would  see  what  disinterested 
kindness  is,  see  there " ;  and  the  rest  would  all  say, 
"Amen."  That  is  certainly  the  law  of  the  pew,  and 
what  is  the  law  of  the  pew  ought  to  be  the  law  of  the 
pulpit. 

Christian  ministers  are  to  be,  not  men  that  pray  four 
times  a  day,  and  wear  black  clothes  and  white  cravats 
and  walk  with  the  consciousness  that  the  whole  uni- 
verse is  looking  upon  them.  A  minister  is  a  live  man. 
He  is  a  large-hearted  man.  If  anywhere  else  he  is 
.deficient,  he  cannot  be  deficient  in  heart. 

Some  one  asked  me  yesterday,  "What  was  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  proper  call  to  the  ministry  ?  I  reply,  the 


40  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

possession  of  those  qualities  which  make  a  good  min- 
ister, —  good  sense,  good  nature,  good  health,  and  down- 
right moral  earnestness.  It  is  signally  true,  however, 
in  this  matter,  "  that  many  are  called,  but  few  are 
chosen."  We  need  more  manhood  and  less  profes- 
sionalism. Scholarship  is  good  for  little  that  does  not 
enrich  manhood.  It  is  the  man  that  is  in  you  that 
preaches.  When  God  calls  he  begins  early,  and  calls 
through  your  parents.  "  Before  thou  earnest  forth  out 
of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee ;  and  I  ordained  thee  a 
prophet  unto  the  nations."  Be  sure  that  it  is  you  that 
is  called.  It  is  evident  that  in  many  cases  some  one 
else  was  meant  when  certain  persons  heard  a  call. 
When  God  calls  very  loud  at  the  time  you  are  born, 
standing  at  the  door  of  life,  and  says,  "  Quarter  of  a 
man,  come  forth ! "  that  man  is  not  for  the  ministry. 
"  Half  a  man,  come  forth ! "  no ;  that  will  not  do  for 
a  preacher.  "  Whole  man,  come  ! "  that  is  you.  The 
man  must  be  a  man,  and  a  full  man,  that  is  going  to  be 
a  true  Christian  minister,  and  especially  in  those  things 
which  are  furthest  removed  from  selfishness  and  the 
nearest  in  alliance  with  true  divine  love. 

FERTILITY  IN   SUBJECTS. 

Sympathy  with  your  people,  insight  of  their  condi- 
tion, a  study  of  the  moral  remedies,  this  will  give  end- 
less diversity  and  fertility  to  your  subjects  for  sermons. 
He  that  preaches  out  of  a  system  of  theology  soon  runs 
his  round  and  returns  on  his  track.  He  that  preaches 
out  of  a  sympathy  with  living  men  will  sooner  exhaust 
the  ocean  or  the  clouds  of  water,  than  his  pulpit  of 
material.  It  is  true  that  subjects  must  be  .studk-d ;  that 


QUALIFICATIONS"  OF  THE,PEEACHER.  41 

principles  must  be  traced,  that  facts  must  be  collected 
and  arranged,  that  books  must  be  studied,  that  systems 
must  be  understood.  But  all  this  is  far  back  of  preach- 
ing. It  is  general  preparation.  Out  of  the  stores  thus 
accumulated  one  must  select  for  sermons,  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  a  physician  selects  remedies  for  the  sick,  or 
stewards  provide  food  for  the  household,  with  an  eye 
on  the  persons  to  be  treated.  The  wants  of  your  people 
must  set  back  into  the  sermon,  and  give  to  it  depth, 
direction,  and  current.  Preaching  is  sometimes  word- 
brooding  ;  sometimes  it  is  a  flash  of  light  to  those  in 
darkness ;  sometimes  a  basket  of  golden  fruit  to  the 
hungry,  a  cordial  to  the  comfortless,  —  all  to  all, — just 
as  Christ  is  All  in  All !  You  will  very  soon  come,  in 
your  parish  life,  to  the  habit  of  thinking  more  about 
your  people  and  what  you  shall  do  for  them  than  about 
your  sermons  and  what  you  shall  talk  about.  That  is 
a  good  sign.  Just  as  soon  as  you  find  yourself  think- 
ing, on  Monday  or  Tuesday,  "  Now,  here  are  these  per- 
sons, or  this  class,"  —  you  run  over  your  list  and  study 
your  people,  —  "  what  shall  I  do  for  them  ? "  you  will 
get  some  idea  what  you  need  to  do.  Sometimes  it 
is  to  call  men  from  their  sins ;  sometimes  to  repress 
the  malign ;  sometimes  to  encourage  hope  in  the  faint- 
hearted ;  sometimes  to  instruct  the  understanding ;  some- 
times to  broaden  men's  knowledge,  and  move  them  off 
of  their  prejudices.  There  are  a  thousand  things  to  do. 
A  preacher  is  a  carpenter,  building  a  house.  You 
ought  to  know,  as  the  house  goes  up,  what  you  shall 
do  next.  Or,  if  it  be  built,  and  you  are  to  furnish  the 
house,  you  are  to  determine  what  is  to  be  its  furni- 
ture, and  how  distributed.  You  will  know  that  this 


42  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

room  is  not  lighted,  or  that  room  is  not  warmed. 
Wherever  you  go  among  your  people,  you  will,  to  use 
the  mercantile  figure,  "be  taking  account  of  stock." 
That  will  suggest  an  endless  number  of  subjects,  and 
these  subjects  will  turn  you  back  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  see  what  you  can  find  there ;  and  that  will 
send  you  back  to  Nature,  where  you  will  see  what  is 
in  God's  other  great  revelation. 

In  this  way  you  will  grow  fertile.  You  will  not  be 
troubled  in  looking  for  subjects  on  which  to  write  ser- 
mons ;  your  only  trouble  will  be  to  find  opportunities 
for  delivering  sermons.  I  know  that  some  men  are 
more  fertile  than  others ;  but  a  sympathetic  study  of 
human  life  is  a  remedy  for  uniform  theology. 

STYLE. 

The  effect  of  this  notion  of  preaching  —  preaching 
from  sympathy  with  living  men  rather  than  from  sym- 
pathy with  any  particular  system  of  thought  —  upon 
the  preacher's  style  will  be  very  great.  I  have  often 
heard  ministers  in  private  conversation,  and  said  to  my- 
self, "  Would  to  God  you  would  do  so  in  the  pulpit ! " 
But  the  moment  they  are  in  the  pulpit  they  fall  into 
their  scholastic,  artificial  style,  which  runs  through  the 
whole  ministerial  life.  A  man  will  talk  to  you  naturally, 
and  say,  "  I  do  wish  you  would  come  down  to-night ; 
the  young  people  had  the  promise  of  your  coming,  and 
why  won't  you  come  ?  "  —  sweet,  natural,  pleading,  per- 
suasive. Yet  he  will  go  into  the  desk,  where  prayer  is  to 
be  made  in  a  persuasive  tone,  and  he  will  begin  address- 
ing the  Lord  with  a  drawling,  whining  falsetto  in  voice, 
and  a  worse  falsetto  in  morals.  He  has  thrown  himself 


QUALIFICATIONS  OF  THE  PREACHER.  43 

out  of  his  proper  self  into  a  ministerial  self,  —  a  very- 
different  thing  !  A  man  will  stop  you  in  the  street  and 
discourse  with  you  there,  and  be  just  as  limber  and  affable 
in  his  sentences,  just  as  curt  and  direct  and  crisp  and 
simple  in  conversational  vernacular  as  any  one  ;  and  yet 
in  the  pulpit,  two-thirds  of  what  he  has  to  say  will  be 
Latin  periphrases  woven  together ;  three  members  on 
one  side  the  sentence-pivot,  balanced  by  three  members 
on  the  other,  and  that  recurring  all  the  time.  This  style 
is  false  to  everything  but  books. .  It  may  be  all  in  sym- 
pathy with  them ;  but  no  man  in  earnest,  talking  to  his 
fellow-men  with  a  purpose,  falls  into  that  artificial  style. 
The  man  who  preaches  from  the  heart  to  the  heart  can 
hardly  help  preaching  so  that  there  shall  be  a  natural- 
ness in  his  style,  and  that  will  be  the  best  style  for  him. 
I  have  known  men  who  would  be  excellent  ministers, 
if  it  were  not,  first,  for  their  lives  ;  secondly,  for  their 
theology ;  and  thirdly,  for  their  style. 

QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  PROFESSION. 

One  other  point.  I  was  asked  yesterday  if  I  would 
say  a  few  words  as  to  "  the  call."  I  have  already  in- 
dicated a  word  as  to  the  call  for  the  ministry.  Practi- 
cally, it  acts  in  this  way.  Young  men  are  sometimes 
brought  up  to  it,  as  I  was.  I  never  had  any  choice 
about  it.  My  father  had  eight  sons.  Only  two  of 
them  ever  tried  to  gel  away  from  preaching ;  and  they 
did  not  succeed.  The  other  six  went  right  into  the 
ministry  just  as  naturally  as  they  went  into  manhood. 
Therefore,  so  far  as  personal  experience  is  concerned,  I 
have  nothing  to  say. 

I  have  observed,  however,  in  classes  in  college,  and 


44  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

elsewhere,  that  where  young  men  have  not  been 
brought  up  to  believe  all  through  their  childhood  that 
they  were  to  be  ministers,  they  generally  have  the 
question  brought  to  their  minds  in  some  serious  mood, 
whether  they  ought  to  go  into  the  law,  or  into  medicine, 
or  to  be  civil  engineers,  or  whether  they  ought  to  go 
into  the  ministry.  They  think  about  it  a  good  while, 
and  at  last  it  is  borne  in  upon  them,  without  any  special 
reason,  that  they  had  better  preach ;  and  they  resolve 
to  do  it.  These  are  young  men  who  ordinarily  cannot 
form  judgments ;  they  drift.  When  you  look  beyond 
this  number,  what  are  some  of  the  elements  that  fit  a 
man  for  the  life  of  a  true  Christian  minister  ? 

I  say,  first,  the  preacher  ought  to  be  a  man  wrho  is 
fruitful  in  moral  ideas,  has  a  genius  for  them,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  every  other  kind  of  ideas.  We  know 
what  it  is  to  have  a  genius  for  arithmetical  or  mathe- 
matical ideas,  for  musical  ideas,  or  for  aesthetic  or  art 
ideas.  A  tendency  in  the  direction  of  moral  ideas, 
whether  developed  or  susceptible  of  being  developed, 
is  a  prime  quality. 

A  second  quality  fitting  a  man  for  the  Christian  min- 
istry, is  the  power  of  moving  men.  If  a  man  is  cold 
and  unsympathetic,  perhaps  he  may  be  able  to  make 
himself  over  ;  but  if  he  cannot,  he  had  better  not  go  into 
the  ministry.  It  will  be  a  hard  task  for  such  a  one.  But 
a  man  that  has  quick  sympathy,  apprehensiveness  of 
men,  intuition  of  human  nature,  has  eminent  qualifica- 
tions for  a  minister.  Every  merchant,  who  is  a  true 
merchant,  has  to  know  how  to  deal  with  his  customers. 
The  moment  they  come  into  the  store  he  reads  them. 
A  good  jury  lawyer  must  have  the  same  aptitude.  We 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PEEACHEE.  45 

are  all  the  time  obliged  to  use  these  qualities,  the  knowl- 
edge of  men,  the  power  of  managing  men.  A  real  mas- 
ter of  men,  when  one  draws  near  to  him,  forms  a  judg- 
ment of  the  new-comer  just  as  instinctively  and  as 
quickly  as  of  a  locomotive  or  a  horse.  (Do  you  ever  see 
a  fine  horse  go  by  and  not  take  his  points  ?  Then  your 
education  has  been  neglected.)  A  minister  who  walks 
down  a  whole  street  and  sees  nobody,  who  only  looks 
inside  of  himself,  is  but  half  a  minister.  Self-absorp- 
tion is  permissible  once  in  a  while ;  but  the  aptitude 
to  deal  with  men,  to  incite  the  springs  of  human 
thought  and  feeling,  the  knowledge  of  how  to  move 
men,  —  that  is  to  be  maintained  in  power  only  by  in- 
cessant practice  and  observation ;  but  if  you  have  that 
in  connection  with  the  genius  for  moral  ideas,  you 
have  two  qualifications. 

A  third  qualification  is  what  I  may  call  living  by  faith, 
the  sense  of  the  infinite  and  the  invisible  ;  the  sense  of 
something  else  besides  what  we  see  with  the  physical 
eyes  ;  the  sense  of  God,  of  eternity,  and  of  heaven.  If 
I  were  asked  what  had  been  in  my  own  ministry  the 
unseen  source  of  more  help  and  more  power  than  any- 
thing else,  I  should  say  that  my  mother  gave  to  me  a 
temperament  that  enabled  me  to  see  the  unseeable  and 
to  know  the  unknowable,  to  realize  things  not  created 
as  if  they  were,  and  oftentimes  far  more  than  if  they 
were,  present  to  my  outward  senses.  The  rain  comesxmt 
of  the  great  ether  above.  You  see  nothing  of  it  to-night, 
though  it  is  there,  and  descends  to-morrow  on  the  grass 
and  the  flowers ;  so  out  of  the  invisible  realm  of  the 
spirit  within  which  you  are  living  under  the  crystalline 
dome  of  eternity,  populous  with  love  and  law  and  truth, 


46  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

you  will  have  a  sense  of  the  vastness  and  magnitude  of 
the  sphere  in  which  you  are  working  which  will  descend 
upon  your  life  with  fructifying  power. 

Another  thing  :  you  should  have  good  health ;  and  a 
fair  portion  of  common  sense,  which  is  the  only  quality 
that  I  think  never  is  increased  by  education ;  that  is 
born  in  a  man,  —  or,  if  it  is  not,  that  is  the  end.  But 
if,  with  those  other  qualities,  you  have  good  sense  and 
good  vigorous  health,  and  withal  are  of  a  good  social 
disposition,  you  have  the  qualifications  out  of  which  a 
minister  can  be  fashioned. 

There  is  one  thing  more.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
man  has  a  right  to  become  a  Christian  minister,  who  is 
not  willing  and  thankful  to  be  the  least  of  all  God's  ser- 
vants and  to  labor  in  the  humblest  sphere.  If  you  would 
come  into  the  Christian  ministry,  hoping-  to  preach  such 
a  sermon  as  Eobert  Hall  would  have  preached,  you  are 
not  fit  to  come  in  at  all.  If  you  have  a  deep  sense 
of  the  sweetness  of  the  service  of  Christ ;  if  the  blood 
of  the  redemption  is  really  in  your  heart  and  in  your 
blood;  if  you  have  tasted  what  gratitude  means,  and 
what  love  means,  and  if  heaven  is  such  a  reality  to  you 
that  all  that  lies  between  youth  and  manhood  is  but  a 
step  toward  heaven ;  if  you  think  that  the  saving  of  a 
single  soul  would  be  worth  the  work  of  your  whole  life, 
you  have  a  call,  and  a  very  loud  call.  A  call  to  the 
ministry  is  along  the  line  of  humility,  and  love,  and 
sympathy,  and  good  sense,  and  natural  aspirations  to- 
ward God. 

I  recollect  when  I  returned  from  the  first  revival  in 
which  I  ever  worked.  I  had  been  at  Indianapolis  be- 
tween one  and  two  years,  and  there  had  been  no  revival 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE  PKEACHEE.  47 

(and  I  had  never  been  in  one  since  I  was  a  boy).  I  went 
out,  on  Brother  Jewett's  call,  from  Indianapolis  to  Terre 
Haute ;  and  I  worked  there  three  weeks  in  a  revival 
until  my  heart  was  on  fire  ;  and  it  rained  a  stream  of 
prayer  all  the  way  .home  from  Terre  Haute  to  Indian- 
apolis. It  was  like  an  Aurora  Borealis,  I  have  no  doubt, 
ray  upon  ray,  for  that  whole  distance,  if  angels  could 
have  seen  it.  It  was  in  that  feeling  all  the  way,  "  Lord, 
slay  me  if  thou  wilt ;.  but  I  will  be  slain,  or  will  have 
life  and  salvation  among  my  people."  On  Sunday  I  gave 
notice  that  I  would  preach  every  night  that  week.  We 
had  a  dingy  lecture-room  in  my  church  that  would  hold 
about  two  hundred  people.  I  preached  Monday  night, 
and  we  had  a  storm ;  Tuesday  night  it  rained  again,  and 
when  I  called  upon  any  who  were  awakened  to  remain, 
no  one  stayed  ;  and  I  said,  "  It  makes  no  difference  ;  if 
the  Lord  wishes  it  to  be  so,  I  do ! "  On  Wednesday 
night  I  preached  again,  with  more  power,  and  called  for 
inquirers  at  the  close ;  one  poor  little  thin  servant-girl 
stopped !  She  smelt  of  the  kitchen  and  looked  kitchen 
all  over.  When  I  dismissed  the  congregation,  my  first 
feeling,  I  know,  as  I  went  toward  her,  was  one  of  disap- 
pointment. I  said  to  myself  that  after  so  much  work 
it  was  too  bad.  It  was  just  a  glance,  an  arrow  which 
the  Devil  shot  at  me,  but  which  went  past.  The  next 
minute  I  had  an  overwhelming  revulsion  in  my  soul ; 
and  I  said  to  myself,  "If  God  pleases,  I  will  work  for 
the  poorest  of  his  creatures.  I  will  work  for  the  heart 
of  a  vagabond,  if  I  am  permitted  to  do  it,  and  bring 
him  to  Christ  Jesus."  I  felt  it ;  and  I  thanked  God 
that  night  for  that  girl's  staying.  He  paid  me  the 
next  night,  for  two  of  my  sweetest  children  —  not  my 


48  LECTURES   ON  PREACEIXG. 

own,  but  they  were  like  my  own  to  me  —  stopped  on 
the  next  night,  and  after  that  the  work  went  on. 

If,  therefore,  you  feel  willing  to  wrork  for  Christ's 
sake,  for  the  sake  of  eternity,  for  the  love  that  you 
have  for  the  intrinsic  sweetness  of  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  the  moulding  of  men  and  making  them  better 
and  helping  them  upward;  if  this  is  itself  sweet  and 
pleasant  to  you ;  if  you  are  moved  to  do  it  in  low 
places,  without  renown,  and  are  willing  to  take  your 
crown  hereafter  for  it,  you  are  called,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  about  it.  But  if  you  want  only  this, — to  be  very 
eloquent  men,  and  to  watch  the  eloquence  of  others  ;  or 
if  you  want  to  have  a  big  church,  with  a  big  salary 
behind  it,  and  if  that  is  your  call  to  the  ministry,  stay 
away.  You  may  be  called,  but  it  was  not  the  Lord  that 
called  you ;  it  was  the  Devil 

Don't  come  from  pride,  but  come  from  a  love  for  the 
work;  and  then,  let  me  tell  you,  your  work  will  be 
music.  I  hear  ministers  talk  about  their  cares  and 
their  burdens.  There  are  cares  and  burdens,  but  no 
more  than  there  are  discords  in  Beethoven's  sympho- 
nies ;  and  your  work  will  be  as  sweet  and  as  musical 
as  his  symphonies  are.  Working  for  men  !  There  is 
nothing  so  congenial  It  is  the  only  business  on  eartli 
that  I  know  of,  excepting  the  mother's  business,  that  is 
clean  all  the  way  through ;  because  it  is  using  superior 
faculties,  superior  knowledge,  not  to  take  advantage  of 
men,  but  to  lift  them  up  and  cleanse  them,  to  mould 
them,  to  fashion  them,  to  give  them  life,  that  you  may 
present  them  before  God. 

I  am  done,  unless  you  wish  to  ask  questions.  I  am 
open  to-day  and  every  day  for  them. 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE   PREACHER.  49 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  How  shall  one  get  the  power  of  adaptation  of  one's  self  to 
others,  and  how  shall  he  increase  it  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  If  you  were  taking  drawing  lessons, 
and  attempting  to  portray  the  human  face,  but  with  so 
little  success  as  to  make  it  very  doubtful  what  you  were 
trying  to  do ;  and  if  you  should  look  up  to  your  teacher 
and  say  to  him,  "  How  shall  I  increase  my  ability  to 
draw  faces  ? "  what  would  he  say  to  you  ?  "  Practice,  — 
practice,  —  that  will  do  it."  Preaching  is  in  one  sense 
an  art ;  not  in  the  ignoble  sense.  It  is  a  fhing  to  be 
learned,  both  in  general  principles  and  in  practical  de- 
tails. It  is  learned  by  some,  as  every  trade  is,  much 
more  easily  than  by  others.  It  is  learned  by  continu- 
ous trying  and  practising.  A  young  minister  ought 
not  to  be  discouraged  if  he  works  three  or  four  years  in 
a  parish  before  he  really  begins  to  get  the  control  of 
things. 

Q.  Is  it  a  good  way  to  learn  to  move  men  by  learning  to  move 
children  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Yes ;  any  way ;  not  merely  with 
children,  but  with  everybody  else.  You  are  all  of  you 
in  society.  You  have  class-mates,  room-mates.  You 
can  begin  practising  a  good  deal  of  the  ministry  now. 
Suppose,  in  a  thing  in  which  you  have  been  accustomed 
to  make  your  room-mate  give  up  to  you,  after  this  you 
give  up  to  him.  Suppose  you  take  some  of  the  familiar 
Scriptural  texts,  "  Look  not  every  man  on  his  own 
things,  but  every  man  also  on  the  things  of  another  " ; 
"  In  honor  preferring  one  another  "  test  yourselves  by 


50  LECTURES  ON   PREACHING. 

that.  See  if  you  can  in  all  cases  give  up,  one  to  an- 
other; give  those  around  you  the  advantage  of  every 
opening,  and  hold  yourselves  back.  Try  all  these  tests. 
These  are  admirable  principles  ;  and  if  you  do  not  learn 
adaptation  by  practising  the  Christian  virtues,  then  I 
am  mistaken.  What  is  minister  ?  It  is  secant ;  serving 
men  in  love  is  ministering. 

Q.  What  is  the  occasion  of  the  tendency  toward  short  pastor- 
ates in  churches  nowadays  ? 

MR.  BEECHER,  —  Largely,  I  think,  the  divine  mercy 
toward  the  parish.  I  do  not  mean  by  that  that  I  con- 
sider a  short  pastorate  a  desirable  thing,  provided  the 
conditions  of  long  pastorates  are  complied  with ;  but  if 
a  man  has  only  a  little  in  him,  and  is  not  going  to  have 
any  more,  I  think  his  removal  is  a  great  mercy  to  his 
parish.  "When  the  cup  is  empty,  it  would  better  be  re- 
moved and  another  one  filled  and  brought  in  its  place. 
Where  one  has  breadth ;  where  he  will  give  himself  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  in  public  and  in  his  study 
both  ;  if  the  study  and  the  street  work  into  each  other 
all  the  way,  he  has  a  true  ministry,  and  he  has  that  in 
him  which  will  last.  A  long  pastorate  has  some  ad- 
vantages that  cannot  be  over-estimated.  But  shallow 
men,  who  are  sometimes  called  broad  men,  ought  to 
have  short  pastorates.  If  you  take  the  Erie  Canal,  and 
without  increasing  the  amount  of  water,  remove  one 
bank  to  a  distance  of  half  a  mile,  you  will  broaden  it 
very  much,  but  you  will  have  perhaps  only  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  depth  of  water.  A  great  many  men  spread 
themselves  out,  and  broaden,  in  that  way,  and  grow 
shallower  and  shallower.  Such  men  soon  evaporate. 


QUALIFICATIONS   OF  THE   PREACHER.  51 

Q.  Some  of  us  expect  to  spend  several  months  this  summer  in 
preaching.  Would  you  encourage  us  to  preach  in  the  revival 
style  the  very  first  thing,  and  keep  on  right  through  ? 

ME.  BEECHER.  —  If  you  mean  by  the  revival  style, 
that  which  is  addressed  exclusively  to  the  feelings,  I 
should  say  No,  not  in  all  cases.  You  may  be  thrown 
among  a  set  of  mountain  men,  where  your  preaching 
will  be  a  great  deal  more  out  of  the  pulpit  than  in  it. 
Paul,  you  know,  wove  tent-cloth ;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  when  he  sat  down  with  the  common  people  and 
worked  with  them,  he  was  preparing  to  preach  to  them. 
The  first  thing  you  want  in  a  neighborhood  is  to  get 
en  rapport  with  the  people.  You  want  to  get  their 
confidence,  to  induce  them  to  listen  to  you.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  intuition  of  a  true  preacher  to  know  how  to 
get  at  men.  He  looks  at  a  man  as  Hobbs  looked  at  a 
lock,  who  always  asked  himself,  "  How  can  I  pick  it  ? " 

When  I  see  a  man  I  instinctively  divide  him  up,  and 
ask  myself,  How  much  has  he  of  the  animal,  how  much 
of  the  spiritual,  and  how  much  of  the  intellectual  ? 
And  what  is  his  intellect,  perceptive  or  reflective  ?  Is 
he  ideal,  or  apathetic,  or  literal  ?  And  I  instinctively 
adapt  myself  to  him. 

There  is  no  mystery  about  this ;  it  is  simple  enough. 
You  all  adapt  yourselves  in  just  that  way.  You 
never  treat  an  ox  in  any  other  way  than  as  an  ox. 
You  never  treat  it  as  if  it  were  a  horse.  But  that  same 
process  by  which  you  adapt  yourselves  unconsciously 
to  the  more  apparent  and  superficial  aspects  of  nature 
can  be  carried  further ;  you  can  adapt  yourself  to  the 
disposition  of  another,  and  know  how  to  take  him, 
where  to  take  him,  what  will  offend,  and  what  will  not 
offend. 


52  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

Q.  How  would  you  influence  a  contrary  man  who  stayed 
away  from  church  for  a  month  ? 

MR.  BEECHER. —  Very  likely  you  labored  with  him 
too  long.  There  are  a  great,  many  ways. 

There  is  no  one  way  of  working  upon  men.  You- 
must  try  them.  In  fact,  you  have  got  to  try  men  as 
you  try  fish.  You  put  on  one  fly,  and  when  you  cast, 
the  trout  don't  rise.  You  whip  it  hither  and  thither  a 
little  while  and  try  it.  Perhaps  it  is  the  wrong  time  of 
day.  You  change  the  fly  and  try  again.  You  come 
another  hour  of  day ;  and  if  he  won't  rise,  you 
come  to-morrow  and  try  again,  and  by  and  by  you 
will  catch  him ;  but  very  likely  it  will  be  by  what 
you  do  not  look  for  at  all,  and  he  will  bite,  and 
you  hook  him  unexpectedly.  You  are  not  to  sup- 
pose you  can  bring  men  down  as  you  would  go  into 
the  woods  to  fell  a  tree.  Some  men  require  a  good 
deal  of  diplomacy  and  management,  and  it  takes  a 
good  deal  of  time.  How  long  was  it  before  the  Lord 
himself  managed  you  ?  How  long  God's  providence 
waits  for  us !  Many  are  the  influences  brought  to  bear 
upon  us  before  we  are  subdued.  You  must  not  be  in  a 
hurry  or  impatient.  You  have  not  lost  a  man  because 
he  does  n't  take  the  truth  the  first  time. 


III. 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY. 

February  7,  1872. 

SHALL  talk  to  you  to-day  on  the  general 
subject  of  Personalism,  as  affecting  your  suc- 
cess in  reaching  men  with,  the  truth,  —  in- 
cluding various  modes  of  bringing  yourselves 
to  bear  on  others,  from  the  pulpit,  and  the  helps  and 
hindrances  in  doing  so,  both  on  the  mental  and  spiritual 
side,  and  on  the  physical  or  material  side. 

No  man  ever  preaches,  all  the  time  thinking  of  pro- 
ducing specific  effects,  without  very  soon  being  made 
conscious  that  men  are  so  different  from  each  other  that 
no  preaching  will  be  continuously  effective  which  is  not 
endlessly  various  ;  and  that  not  for  the  sake  of  arresting 
attention,  but  because  all  men  do  not  take  in  moral 
teaching  by  the  same  sides  of  their  minds.  I  remember 
when  it  was  the  custom,  and  it  was  supposed  a  proper 
thing  to  do,  for  ministers  to  hold  up  a  regular  system  of 
moral  truth,  sermon  by  sermon,  and  chapter  by  chapter, 
until  the  received  average  views  of  the  day  had  been 
spread  out  before  the  congregation;  and  then  it  was 
hoped  that  a  Divine  Sovereignty  would  apply  these 
truths  to  men's  hearts.  Experience  ought  to  have 


54  •LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING. 

shown  them  that  there  is  a  class  of  hearers  in  every 
intelligent  community  that  will  never  be  led  except 
through  their  reason.  They  will  require  that  the  path 
be  laid  down  for  them,  and  that  they  see  it  before  they 
follow.  They  will  not  be  content  to  receive  the  truth  in 
any  other  mode  than  by  the  idea-form.  If  they  cannot 
get  it  in  one  church,  they  will  go  to  another ;  and  if  still 
they  cannot  find  it,  they  will  go  nowhere.  Yet,  if  you 
shape  your  preaching,  as  often  literary  men  in  the  pul- 
pit are  accustomed  to  do,  to  the  distinctively  intellectual 
men  in  the  community,  you  will  very  soon  fill  them  full 
and  starve  the  rest  of  your  congregation  ;  because,  right 
alongside  of  them,  there  are  natures  just  as  noble  as 
theirs,  but  not  accustomed  to  receive  their  food  through 
the  mouth  of  reason,  except  in  an  incidental  and  indi- 
rect way.  We  all  use  our  reason,  more  or  less,  in  all 
processes ;  but  then  there  are  a  great  many  persons  who 
want  the  truth  presented  in  emotive  forms. 

DIFFERENT   CLASSES   OF   HEARERS. 

The  hard  reasoner  says,  "  No  tears  for  me ;  don't  color 
your  preaching ;  I  want  it  pure  as  the  beams  of  light, 
and  as  transparent ;  and  the  calmer  and  more  inexor- 
ably logical  its  propositions,  and  the  more  mathematical 
its  proof,  the  better  I  like  it."  But  there  are  in  any 
community  probably  six  to  one  who  will  watch  for  the 
emotional  and  impassioned  part  of  the  sermon,  saying 
"  That  is  the  preaching  I  want ;  I  can  understand  what 
I  feel."  They  are  fed  by  their  hearts.  They  have  as 
much  right  to  be  fed  by  their  hearts  as  the  others  have 
to  be  fed  by  their  reason. 

You  should  strive,  in  setting  the  table  in  your  church 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY.  55 

wherever  you  may  be,  to  do  as  the  hotel  proprietor  does. 
He  never  says  to  himself,  "  What  dish  do  I  like  best  ? 
—  that  will  I  put  on  the  table  " ;  or,  "  What  dishes  do 
Lawyer  A  and  Physician  B  like  best  ? "  He  spreads 
his  tables  for  the  benefit  of  the  community  at  large,  — 
something  for  everybody;  and  he  does  wisely.  The 
man  who  means  to  catch  men,  and  to  catch  all  of  them, 
must  prepare  bait  for  those  that  bite  purely  by  the  un- 
derstanding, and  just  as  much  bait  for  those  that  bite 
largely  by  their  emotions.  But  there  is  another  class. 
I  recollect  my  dear  old  father  talking  about  persons  that 
worshipped  God  in  clouds  and  saw  the  hand  of  God  in 
beauty.  He  would  say,  "  It  is  all  moonshine,  my  son, 
with  no  doctrine  nor  edification  nor  sanctity  in  it  at 
all,  and  I  despise  it."  I  never  knew  my  father  to  look 
at  a  landscape  in  his  life,  unless  he  saw  pigeons  or 
squirrels  in  it.  I  have  seen  him  watch  the  stream,  but 
•it  was,  invariably,  to  know  if  there  were  pickerel  or 
trout  in  it.  He  was  a  hunter,  every  inch  ;  but  I  never 
could  discern  that  he  had  an  aesthetic  element  in  him, 
so  far  as  relates  to  pure  beauty.  Sublimity  he  felt. 
Whatever  was  grand  he  appreciated  very  keenly.  I  do 
not  think  that  he  ever  looked  at  one  building  in  his  life, 
except  the  Girard  College.  When  he  came  suddenly 
upon  that,  and  it  opened  up  to  him,  he  looked  up  and 
admired  it ;  and  I  always  marvelled  at  that,  as  a  little 
instance  of  grace  in  him. 

That  is  laughable  to  you,  I  have  no  doubt ;  and  since 
these  addresses  are  the  most  familiar  of  all  talks,  I  will 
give  you  a  little  more  of  my  amusing  experience  with 
him  at  home.  When  he  became  an  old  man  he  lived 
six  months  in  my  family,  and  became  during  that  time 


56  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

much  interested  in  the  pictures  hanging  on  the  walla 
of  the  house.  One  which  particularly  attracted  his  at- 
tention, and  with  which  he  was  greatly  pleased,  repre- 
sented a  beautiful  lake,  with  hunters  ensconced  behind 
trees,  shooting  at  ducks  on  the  lake.  He  would  look 
at  that  picture  every  day,  and  I,  not  thinking  of  the 
sportsmen,  but  only  of  the  charming  landscape,  said  to 
myself,  "  Well,  it  is  good  to  see  him  breaking  from  the 
spell  of  some  of  his  old  ideas,  and,  now  that  he  has  be- 
come old,  to  see  these  fine  gifts  growing  and  coming  out, 
—  to  behold  him  ripening  into  the  aesthetic  element 
in  this  way."  One  day  I  stood  behind  him,  as  he  was 
looking  at  the  picture,  unconscious  of  my  presence. 
Said  he,  "He  must  have  hit  one,  two,  three — and,  I 
guess,  four!" 

Now,  it  is  not  strange  that  a  person  should,  under 
such  circumstances,  having  no  appreciation  of  the  beau- 
tiful in  his  nature,  laugh  to  scorn  the  idea  that  beauty 
could  ever  lead  a  man  to  God,  or  bring  liim  within  the 
influence  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  incline  him  to 
Climb  from  a  selfish  to  a  spiritual  life ;  but,  I  tell  you 
there  is  many  a  mouth  that  requires  to  be  fed  by  the 
aesthetic  element. 

It  is  not  a  vain  thing  to  hear  men  say  that  they  feel 
more  like  worshipping  in  music  than  in  any  other  thing. 
The  best  organist  in  America  for  extemporaneous  music 
is  Mr.  John  Zundel.  When  he  was  converted,  and 
came  into  the  church,  he  said  to  me  one  morning,  "  It 
seems  that  everything  in  the  world  is  new.  Last  night 
I  prayed,  but  not  as  you  do."  I  asked  him  what  he 
meant,  and  he  answered,  "  I  do  not  speak  my  prayers." 
"  Well,"  asked  I, "  how  do  you  pray  ? "  "  On  the  piano 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN   ORATORY.  57 

always,"  said  he.  That  was  true.  He  would  sit  down 
at  his  piano,  when  in  a  worshipping  mood,  shut  his  eyes 
and  pray  with  his  fingers.  I  did  not  wonder  at  it  when 
I  heard  his  music. 

When  I  entered  the  first  gallery  of  any  magnitude 
in  Europe,  it  was  a  revelation  to  me ;  I  was  deeply 
affected.  It  was  at  the  Luxembourg.  I  had  never 
imagined  such  a  wealth  of  glory.  The  sense  o'f  exhil- 
aration was  so  transcendent  that  I  felt  as  if  I  could 
not  stay  in  the  body.  I  was  filled  with  that  super- 
sensitiveness  of  supernal  feeling  which  is  true  wor- 
ship ;  and  I  never  seemed  to  myself  so  near  the  gate 
of  heaven.  I  never  felt  capable  of  so  nearly  under- 
standing my  Master ;  never  in  all  my  life  was  I  con- 
scious of  such  an  earnestness  to  do  his  work,  and  to  do 
it  better  than  I  did,  as  while  under  the  all-pervading 
influence  of  that  gallery  of  beauty. 

I  find  a  great  many  persons  who  say,  "  I  do  not  much 
enjoy  going  to  church,  but  if  I  am  permitted  to  wander 
out  into  the  fields,  along  the  fringes  of  the  forests,  and 
to  hear  the  birds  sing,  to  watch  the  cattle,  and  to  look  at 
the  shadows  on  the  hills,  I  am  sure  it  makes  me  a  bet- 
ter man."  Some  others,  like  my  dear  old  father,  would 
say,  "  That  is  all  moonshine  ;  there  is  nothing  in  it,  no 
thought,  no  truth,  and  no  doctrine  of  edification."  But 
there  is  truth  in  it.  There  are  minds  that  open  to 
spiritual  things  through  that  side  of  their  nature  more 
readily  and  easily  than  through  any  other.  This  should 
be  recognized. 

Then  there  is  another  class.  There  are  a  great  many 
persons  who  are  keenly  sensitive  on  the  side  of  imagi- 
nation, and  they  never  really  receive  anything  as  true, 

3* 


58  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

until  the  fact  or  principle  is,  as  it  were,  enveloped  in  a 
little  haze.  They  need  the  mystic  element.  They  do 
not  want  sharp  outlines.  There  is  something  in  mys- 
tery which  is  attractive  to  them.  And  yet  some  preach- 
ers insist  that  truth  should  be  set  before  all  men  in  its 
most  accurate  and  exact  form.  You  might  just  as  well 
attempt  to  reduce  the  clouds  to  triangles  and  circles,  in 
order  to  mathematically  demonstrate  their  beauty  to  the 
eye  of  an  artist. 

HOW  TO   MEET   DIFFERING  MINDS. 

Now,  in  order  to  reach  and  help  all  these  varying 
phases  of  your  congregation,  you  must  take  human 
nature  as  you  find  it,  in  its  broad  range.  Under- 
stand this,  that  the  same  law  which  led  the  Apostle  to 
make  himself  a  Greek  to  the  Greeks,  and  a  Jew  to  the 
Jews,  and  to  put  himself  under  the  law  with  those 
who  were  under  the  law;  and  that  same  everlasting 
good  sense  of  conformity  in  these  things,  for  the  sake 
of  taking  hold  of  men  where  they  can  be  reached,  and 
lifting  them  up,  requires  you  to  study  human  nature  as 
it  is,  and  not  as  people  tell  you  it  ought  to  be.  If  a  man 
can  be  saved  by  pure  intellectual  preaching,  let  him 
have  it.  If  others  require  a  predominance  of  emotion, 
provide  that  for  them.  If  by  others  the  truth  is  taken 
more  easily  through  the  imagination,  give  it  to  them  in 
forms  attractive  to  the  imagination.  If  there  are  still 
others  who  demand  it  in  the  form  of  facts  and  rules,  see 
that  they  have  it  in  that  form.  Take  men  as  it  has 
pleased  God  to  make  them  ;  and  let  your  preaching,  so 
far  as  concerns  the  selection  of  material,  and  the  mode 
and  method  by  which  you  are  presenting  the  truth,  fol- 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN   ORATORY.  59 

low  the  wants  of  the  persons  themselves,  and  not  simply 
the  measure  of  your  own  minds. 

AN  EASY  DANGER. 

Too  often  men  find  a  certain  facility  in  themselves  in 
single  directions,  and  they  confine  their  preaching  to 
that  particular  line.  The  consequence  is,  their  congre- 
gations are  very  soon  classified.  One  sort  of  a  preacher 
gets  one  sort  of  people,  and  another  sort  gets  another 
sort  of  people,  instead  of  all  churches  having  some  of 
every  kind  of  mind  in  them.  They  become  segregated 
and  arranged  according  to  ministers.  That  is  very  bad 
for  the  churches. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  a  village  that  it  has  but  one 
church  for  all  the  people  ;  where  the  rich  and  poor,  the 
cultured  and  the  unlettered,  have  to  come  together,  and 
learn  to  bear  with  each  other.  This  is  a  part  of  that 
discipline  and  attrition  which  smooths  and  polishes 
men,  and  makes  them  better,  if  there  is  grace  to  do  it. 
But  in  the  cities  you  will  find  that  churches  are  classi- 
fied ;  and  in  the  city  of  New  York  I  can  point  out  to 
you  many  a  church  in  which  there  are  almost  no  poor, 
plain  people,  but  the  great  body  are  people  of  wealth, 
culture,  and  refinement ;  and  the  pulpit  is  invariably 
high-toned,  perfectly  pure  in  language,  clear  and  me- 
thodical in  discourse,  always  proper,  —  so  proper,  in 
fact,  that  it  is  almost  dead  for  want  of  life,  for  want 
of  side  branches,  for  want  of  adaptation  and  conformity 
to  human  nature  as  it  is.  It  is  under  such  circumstan- 
ces, where  a  man  follows  a  single  groove  in  himself  or 
in  his  congregation,  and  does  it  because  he  learns  to 
work  easier  so,  year  by  year,  —  and  it  is  really  on  that 


60  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

account,  —  that  preaching  becomes  narrowed  down  and 
very  soon  wears  out. 

It  has  been  asked  here,  why  pastors  change  so  often. 
Preachers  are  too  apt  to  set  the  truth  before  their  con- 
gregations in  one  way  only,  —  whichever  one  they  find 
they  have  the  greatest  facility  for ;  and  that  is  like 
playing  on  one  chord, — men  get  tired  of  the  monot- 
ony. Whereas,  preaching  should  be  directed  to  every 
element  of  human  nature  that  God  has  implanted  in  us, 
—  to  the  imaginative,  to  the  highly  spiritual,  to  the 
moral,  to  that  phase  of  the  intellectual  that  works  up 
and  toward  the  invisible,  and  to  the  intellectual  that 
works  down  to  the  material  and  tangible. 

He  is  a  great  man  who  can  play  upon  the  human 
soul !  We  think  him  a  great  artist,  who  can  play  on  an 
organ  with  sixty  stops,  combining  them  infinitely,  and 
drawing  out  harmony  and  melody,  inarching  them 
through  with  grand  thought,  to  the  end  of  the  sym- 
phony; that  indicates  a  master,  we  think.  It  does; 
but  what  organ  that  man  ever  built  does  not  shrink  in 
comparison  with  the  one  that  God  built  and  called 
Man  ?  Where  you  have  before  you  a  whole  congrega- 
tion or  a  whole  community,  and  all  their  wants  and 
needs  are  known,  and  you  are  trying  to  draw  out  of 
them  a  higher  and  nobler  life,  what  an  instrument  you 
have  to  play  upon,  and  what  a  power  it  is  when  you 
have  learned  it,  and  have  the  touch  by  which  you  can 
play  so  as  to  control  its  entire  range  and  compass  ! 
There  is  nothing  more  sublime  in  this  world  than  a 
man  set  upon  lifting  his  fellow-men  up  toward  Heaven, 
and  able  to  do  it.  There  are  no  sensations  in  this  world 
comparable  with  those  which  one  has  whose  whole  soul 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY.       Gl 

is  aglow,  waking  into  the  consciousness  of  this  power. 
It  is  the  Divine  power,  and  it  is  all  working  up  toward 
the  invisible  and  the  spiritual.  There  is  no  ecstasy 
like  it. 

DEMANDS   OF  VARIETY  UPON  THE   PREACHER. 

There  is  another  question  which  I  have  barely  hinted 
at,  and  that  is,  in  attempting  to  address  the  truth  in 
different  forms  to  men,  so  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  a 
whole  community,  must  not  a  man  be  universal  like 
Shakespeare  ?  How  can  you  expect  men,  taking  them 
as  they  are,  to  do  this  ? 

My  reasoning  is  this :  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
men  will  do  it  in  perfection,  that  they  will  do  it  at  once, 
or  that  they  will  ever  more  than  approximate  to  the 
ideal.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  repeat  every  time  I  speak 
to  you  this  thing,  —  you  have  got  to  learn  your  business. 
It  will  take  years  and  years  before  you  are  expert 
preachers.  Let  nobody  puff  you  up  by  saying  you  are 
able  preachers,  because  you  can  preach  three  or  four 
good  sermons.  You  have  three  or  four  tunes  ;  that  is  all. 
You  are  not  practised  workmen  until  you  understand 
human  nature,  and  know  how  to  touch  it  with  the  Di- 
vine truth ;  until  you  comprehend  the  Divine  truth  in 
so  many  of  its  bearings  upon  the  human  soul  that  you 
can  work  with  tolerable  facility  from  the  truth  that  is 
in  Jesus  to  that  which  is  in  man ;  and,  quite  as  often, 
can  reverse  the  process.  That  is  the  study.  You  have 
not  begun  your  education  yet.  You  are  but  getting 
ready  to  study  when  you  begin  to  preach.  If  you 
preach  for  five  years,  and  find  that  your  work  is  slow, 
and  much  of  it  obscure,  and  does  not  produce  the  re- 


62  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

suits  aimed  at,  do  not  be  discouraged.  The  work  is  so 
great  that  you  need  not  be  ashamed,  after  working  for 
years,  to  find  that  you  are  still  an  apprentice  and  not 
a  journeyman. 

HOW  TO  USE  ONE'S  OWN  SPECIAL  FORCES. 

The  question,  then,  comes  up,  How  far  shall  a  man 
conform  to  the  strong  tendencies  of  his  own  nature  ? 

One  man  is  hims'elf  very  imaginative,  and  not  a 
reasoner;  or,  he  finds  himself  possessed  of  a  judicial 
mind,  calm,  clear,  but  not  enthusiastic ;  while  another 
finds  himself  an  artist,  as  it  were,  with  a  mind  expan- 
sive and  sensitive,  seeing  everything  iridescent,  in  all 
colors.  Can  these  men  change  their  own  endowments  ? 
Or,  how  can  one  conform  to  the  endowment  of  the 
other  ? 

A  minister  says,  "  I  am  naturally  very  sensitive  to 
the  praise  and  opinion  of  men.  When  I  speak  I  can't 
get  rid  of  the  feeling  of  myself.  I  am  standing  before 
a  thousand  people,  and  I  am  all  the  time  thinking 
about  myself,  —  whether  I  am  standing  right,  and  what 
men  are  thinking  of  me.  I  can't  keep  that  out  of  my 
mind."  What  is  such  a  man  to  do  ?  Can  he  change 
his  own  temperament  ? 

On  the  other  side,  there  are  men  who  say,  "  I  don't 
care  what  people  think  of  me ;  I  wish  I  cared  more. 
I  am  naturally  cold,  somewhat  proud,  and  self-sus- 
tained. People  talk  about  sympathy  and  a  warm 
side  toward  men,  but  I  never  feel  any  of  that.  I  do 
what  is  right,  if  the  heavens  fall,  and  go  on  my  way. 
If  people  like  it,  I  am  glad ;  and  if  they  don't,  that 
is  their  lookout."  How  can  you  change  that  disposi- 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY.  63 

• 

tion  ?  How  can  a  man  alter  the  laws  that  are  laid  down 
for  him  ? 

Well,  in  one  sense,  he  cannot  change*  at  all.  You  can 
make  just  as  many  prayers,  write  just  as  many  resolu- 
tions, and  keep  just  as  long  a  journal  as  you  please,  re- 
cording the  triumphs  of  grace  over  your  approbativeness, 
and  when  you  are  screwed  down  in  your  coffin,  you  will 
have  been  no  less  of  a  praise-loving  man  than  when 
you  were  taken  out  of  the  cradle.  That  quality  grows, 
and  it  grows  stronger  in  old  age  than  at  any  other  time. 
You  will  find  that  men  get  over  some  things  in  time  ; 
they  become  less  and  less  imaginative ;  they  become 
less  severe  as  they  grow  older ;  but,  if  vanity  is  a  part 
of  their  composition,  old  age  only  strengthens  it,  and 
they  grow  worse  and  worse  as  they  grow  in  years.  In 
general,  too,  if  a  man  has  a  strong  will,  I  do  not  think 
he  loses  any  of  it  as  he  gets  along  through  life.  It  be- 
comes fixed,  firm  as  adamant. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  that  you  should  change  much. 
Go  and  look  at  Central  Park.  Before  the  artistic  hand 
of  the  landscape-gardener  began  to  work  upon  its  sur- 
face, there  were  vast  ledges  of  rock  in  every  direction, 
and  other  obstructions  of  the  most  stubborn  character. 
Now,  if,  when  the  engineer  came  to  look  over  the  land 
for  the  purpose  of  laying  it  out  into  a  beautiful  park, 
he  had  said,  "How  under  the  sun  am  I  going  to  blast 
out  those  rocks  ? "  he  would  have  had  a  terrible  time 
of  it,  and  would  have  been  blasting  until  this  day.  In- 
stead of  that,  however,  he  said,  "I  will-  plant  vines 
around  the  edges  of  the  rocks  and  let  them  run  up  over. 
The  rocks  will  look  all  the  better,  and  the  vines  will 
have  a  place  to  grow  and  display  their  beauty.  In  that 
way  I  will  make  use  of  the  rocks." 


64  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

* 

So  it  is  with  your  own  nature.  There  is  not  a  single 
difficulty  in  it  which  you  cannot  make  use  of,  and  which, 
after  that,  would  not  be  a  power  for  good.  Suppose  you 
are  conscious,  in  your  disposition,  of  approbativeness. 
Do  you  think  you  are  more  sensitive  than  thousands  of 
God's  best  ministers  have  been  ?  But  perhaps  you  love 
the  praise  of  men  more  than  the  praise  of  God.  The 
thing  for  you  to  do,  then,  is  to  train  your  approbative- 
ness, so  that,  instead  of  delighting  in  the  lower  types 
of  praise,  —  those  which  imply  weakness  and  which 
unman  you,  —  you  will  strive  after  those  which  rise 
steadily  higher  and  higher  'in  the  things  which  are  of 
God.  Now,  it  is  not  your  fault  that  you  have  the  ele- 
ment of  approbativeness,  but  it  is  your  fault  that  you 
suffer  it  to  feed  on  despicable  food.  Train  it  to  desire 
approbation  for  things  that  are  noble  and  just,  for  doing, 
intensely,  whatever  is  disinterested  among  men, -and  for 
things  that  other  men  cannot  do.  Task  yourselves  as 
men  should  do,  and  not  like  boys  or  puling  girls.  Have 
such  a  conception  of  manhood  in  Christ  Jesus  that  you 
would  scorn  praise  for  things  that  are  less  than  noble. 
Strike  a  line  through  the  head,  and  seek  praise  for 
things  that  are  represented  above  the  line  and.  not 
below  it. 

You  cannot  find  a  more  beautiful  or  illustrious  in- 
stance of  the  transformation  of  a  great  constitutional 
faculty  than  in  Paul,  —  Paul,  the  fiercely  proud  and 
arrogant,  the  man  that  was  originally  made  for  a  per- 
secutor. For,  the  moment  the  summer  of  Christ's  love 
drew  near  and  shone  on  him,  he  became  a  changed 
man.  Although  he  moans  and  yearns  in  his  teachings, 
and  his  letters  are  full  of  self-consciousness,  yet  it  is  all 


THE  "PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY.  65 

extremely  noble.  It  is  beautiful.  I  would  not  take  a 
single  "  I "  out  of  Paul's  epistles ;  and  yet  you  might 
take  scores  out  of  every  one  of  them,  and  they  would 
scarcely  be  missed,  there  are  so  many.  Where  was 
there  a  man  whose  pride  was  more  regal  than  his  ?  and 
what  a  power  it  was,  and  how  he  used  it  for  Christ's 
sake  ! 

In  regard  to  strong  constitutional  peculiarities,  I 
would  say,  therefore,  that  you  cannot  eradicate  them, 
and  that  you  should  not  try  to  change  them  very  much. 
You  can  regulate  and  discipline  every  one  of  your  emo- 
tive powers ;  but  do  not  try  to  quench  them.  Do  not 
crucify  anything.  Do  not  crucify  your  passions.  Do 
not  crucify  any  basilar  instinct.  There  is  force  in  it,  if 
you  know  how  to  use  it  as  a  force,  in  the  propulsion  of 
moral  feeling  and  moral  ideas.  You  may  be  naturally 
ambitious ;  you  will  be  ambitious  to  the  day  of  your 
death.  Do  not  attempt  to  take  away  your  constitu- 
tional endowment,  only  train  it  to  things  which  are 
consonant  .with  Divine  sympathy  and  with  true  life. 
Make  it  work,  not  for  yourself,  but  for  others,  and  it 
will  be  a  power  that  you  need  not  be  ashamed  of. 

SELF-TRAINING  AN  EDUCATION. 

This  whole  necessity  of  self-use  is  provided  as  a  school 
of  education  for  every  man,  and  especially  may  it  be 
made  efficient  in  the  dissemination  of  the  Gospel.  He 
who  gives  his  whole  life-force  to  the  work  of  converting 
men  unto  Christ,  will  find,  I  think,  that  for  a  long  time 
he  scarcely  will  need  anybody  to  tell  him  what  to  do 
and  what  to  be.  You  must  go  into  a  parish  and  say  to 
yourself,  "  There  is  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  within 

E 


66  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

the  bounds  of  this  parish  to  whom  I  am  not  beholden. 
I  am  to  bring  the  force  of  my  whole  soul  to  bear  upon 
these  persons.  I  am  to  get  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
them.  I  am  to  make  them  feel  my  personality.  I  am 
to  prepare  them  to  hear  me  preach  by  gaining  their 
confidence  outside  of  the  church  and  pulpit."  You  must 
meet  them  in  their  every -day  life,  in  their  ruggedness 
and  selfishness.  You  will  find  one  man  spoken  of  as 
a  laughing-stock  in  one  neighborhood,  and  another  as 
an  odious  man  in  another.  Nobody  can  be  a  laughing- 
stock or  odious  to  you.  You  are  like  physicians  who 
attend  the  inmates  of  a  hospital;  it  matters  not  to 
them  from  what  cause  the  patients  are  lying  hurt  and 
wounded  there.  Sick  men  belong  to  the  physician's 
care,  and  he  must  take  care  of  them.  Do  not  pick  out 
the  beautiful  and  good,  or  those  who  suit  you.  Select 
from  your  parish  the  men  who  need  you  most,  and  if 
you  cannot  be  patient  with  them,  if  you  cannot  bring 
your  soul  to  be  a  sacrifice  for  others  and  bear  with  them, 
how  can  you  make  them  understand  what  Jesus  Christ 
did  for  the  world  ?  You  have  got  to  do  that  same 
thing  right  over  again  at  home,  with  the  members  of 
your  church,  with  the  outcast  and  with  the  wanderer. 
You  must  be,  if  I  may  say  so,  little  Christs.  You  must 
make  a  living  sacrifice  of  yourself  again  and  again, 
against  your  instincts,  —  humbling  your  pride,  holding 
in  desires,  submitting  to  things  you  do  not  like,  and 
doing  things  which  are  repugnant  to  your  taste,  for 
Christ's  sake  and  for  man's  sake  ;  learning  to  love  to  do 
it;  and  so  interpreting,  by  your  personality,  what  it 
means  for  Jesus  Christ  to  have  made  a  sacrifice  of  him- 
self for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  What  else  did  the 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT   IX  ORATORY.  67 

Apostle  mean  by  saying,  "  Christ  in  you  "  ?  And  if  he 
promises  to  abide  in  you,  how  can  he  abide  in  you  in 
any  other  sense  than  that  ? 

PREACHING  THE   PREACHER'S  WHOLE   BUSINESS. 

The  next  point  I  wish  to  make  with  you  is,  that  if 
you  are  to  be  preachers  in  any  such  sense  as  this  which 
I  have  explained  to  you,  preaching  will  have  to  be 
your  whole  business.  Now,  in  a  small  way,  everybody 
preaches  ;  but  if  you  are  going  to  be  professional  preach- 
ers, if  you  will  make  that  your  life-calling,  it  is  not 
probable  that  there  is  one  of  you  who  was  built  large 
enough  to  do  anything  more  than  that.  It  will  take  all 
that  you  have  in  you  and  all  your  time.  I  do  not  think 
a  man  could  run  a  locomotive-engine,  paint  pictures, 
keep  school,  and  preach  on  Sundays  Jo  any  very  great 
edification.  A  man  who  is  going  to  be  a  successful 
preacher  should  make  his  whole  life  run  toward  the 
pulpit. 

Perhaps  you  will  say,  "  Are  you  not,  yourself,  doing 
just  the  other  thing  ?  Don't  you  edit  a  paper,  and 
lecture,  and  make  political  speeches,  and  write  this, 
that,  and  the  other  thing  ?  Are  you  not  studying 
science,  and  are  you  not  au  fait  in  the  natural  enjoy- 
ments of  rural  life  ?  " 

Well,  where  a  man  stands  in  the  pulpit,  and  all 
the  streams  run  away  from  the  pulpit  down  to  those 
things,  the  pulpit  will  be  very  shallow  and  very  dry ; 
but  when  a  man  opens  these  streams  in  the  neigh- 
boring hills  as  so  many  springs,  and  all  the  streams  run 
down  into  the  pulpit,  he  will  have  abundant  supplies. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  difference,  whether  you  are 


68  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

working  in  the  collaterals  toward  the  pulpit,  or  away 
from  the  pulpit. 

You  can  tell  very  quickly.  If,  when  a  man  comes 
back  from  his  garden,  his  lectures,  his  journeys,  and 
his  aesthetic  studies,  or  from  his  scientific  coteries  and 
stances,  he  finds  himself  less  interested  in  his  proper 
work,  if  the  Sabbath  is  getting  to  be  rather  a  bur- 
densome day  to  him,  and  it  is  irksome  to  be  preach- 
ing, he-  must  quit  one  or  other  of  those  things.  The 
streams  rim  from  the  pulpit  instead  of  into  it.  But 
if,  when  a  man  feels  he  is  called  to  be  an  architect  of 
men,  an  artist  among  men,  in  moulding  them;  when 
one  feels  that  his  life-power  is  consecrated  to  trans- 
forming the  human  soul  toward  the  higher  ideal  of 
character  for  time  and  eternity,  he  looks  around  upon 
the  great  forces  ,of  the  world  and  says  to  them,  "  You 
are  my  servants  "  ;  to  the  clouds,  "  Give  me  what  you 
have  of  power";  to  the  hills,  "Bring  me  of  your 
treasures  "  ;  to  all  that  is  beautiful,  "  Come  and  put 
your  garment  upon  me  "  ;  and  to  all  that  is  enjoyable, 
"Fill  me  with  force  and  give  abundance  to  the  ful- 
ness of  my  feeling,"  —  if  a  man  makes  himself  mas- 
ter of  the  secrets  of  nature  that  he  may  have  power 
and  strength  to  do  his  work,  —  then  he  is  not  carrying 
on  three  or  four  kinds  of  business  at  the  same  time. 
He  is  carrying  on  one  business,  and  he  collects  from  a 
hundred  the  materials  and  forces  by  which  he  does  it. 

That  is  right.  It  will  do  you  no  hurt,  but  will  bene- 
fit you,  if  you  will  make  yourself  familiar  with  public 
affairs.  But  you  must  not  let  public  affairs  settle  down 
on  you  and  smother  you.  You  must  keep  yourself 
abreast  of  science ;  but  you  must  be  surer  of  your  faith 


THE  PEESONAL  ELEMENT  IN   ORATORY.  69 

than  science  is  of  its  details.  You  must  see  to  it  that 
you  are  the  master  of  everything,  and  not  it  the  master 
of  you.  If  music  is  more  to  you  than  your  duties,  it  is 
dangerous  ;  but  it  ought  to  be  a  shame  to  you  that  it  is 
dangerous.  If  genial  society  and  the  flow  of  social 
merriment  is  sweet  to  you,  and  it  seduces  you  from 
your  work,  it  is  perilous,  —  but  it  is  a  shame  that  these 
things  should  -so  easily  overcome  you.  You  ought  to 
build  yourselves  on  a  pattern  so  broad  that  you  can 
take  all  these  things  along  with  you.  They  are  the 
King's ;  and  you  have  a  right  to  them.  You  have  a 
right  to  be  a  child  with  children  ;  the  best  fellow  among 
young  men.  You  have  a  right  to  all  manly  recreations, 
but  you  must  see  to  it  that  you  are  stronger  than  the 
whole  of  them.  You  have  a  right  to  feel  like  other 
men,  and  to  take  part  in  all  their  interests,  but  you 
must  be  larger  than  them  all  You  must  feel  that 
you  are  charged  with  the  realities  of  the  great  world 
that  is  hanging  over  our  heads,  —  and,  my  God,  such  a 
world !  that  never  says  anything ;  that  keeps  silence 
above  us,  while  the  destinies  of  the  ages  have  been 
rolling  onward  ;  and  where  there  are  such  things  going 
on,  that  I  marvel  no  sound  ever  drops  down  to  us.  But 
if  a  man  lives  and  has  seen  Him  that  is  invisible,  and 
It  that  is  invisible,  all  these  lower  things  are  open 
books  unto  him ;  and,  instead  of  weakening,  they  be- 
come elements  of  strength  and  power. 

EXTERNAL  HINDRANCES. 

A  man  may  spend  one  half  the  strength  of  his  life 
trying  to  overcome  obstacles  that  interpose  between 
himself  and  men,  which  is  absolutely  unnecessary.  I 


70  LECTURES   ON   PEEACHING. 

told  Brother  Storrs  in  his  church  edifice  that,  with  all 
his  splendid  success,  I  thought  one  full  third  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  overcoming  the  natural  resistance  of 
that  church  structure  to  the  gospel ;  not  because  it 
was  beautiful,  for  I  think  a  beautiful  church  is  a  help, 
but  because  it  was  constructed  on  the  principle  of 
isolation  or  wide  separation,  —  as  though  a  man  should 
sit  one  side  of  a  river  and  try  to  win  a  mistress  on  the 
other  side,  bawling  out  his  love  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 
However  she  might  have  been  inclined,  one  such  shout 
would  be  too  much  for  tender  sentiment. 

Churches  are  built  now  on  the  same  principle  as  they 
formerly  were,  in  the  days  of  the  founders  of  the  old 
cathedrals.  Then  the  services  turned  on  the  effect  of 
music,  and  the  production  of  awe  by  the  shimmering 
lights,  by  the  dimness  and  vagueness.  They  turned 
on  the  presentation  of  gorgeous  apparel  and  all  kinds 
of  things  for  the  eye  to  behold ;  but  there  was  very 
little  preaching,  very  little.  Because  they  built  their 
churches  on  a  cruciform  plan,  we  —  who  have  revo- 
lutionized old  theories,  who  believe  that  a  church  is  a 
household,  and  that  a  preacher  has  a  personal  influ- 
ence upon  men,  and  is  not  a  mere  machine  —  build  our 
churches  just  like  them.  You  will  see,  in  every  culti- 
vated community,  churches  built  for  modern  preaching 
purposes  on  mediaeval  principles. 

We  will  take  the  church  in  New  York  called  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle.  In  it  there  are  two  lines  of 
columns  which  hide  a  range  of  six  pews,  on  each  side 
straight  from  the  pulpit  clear  through  to  the  corner  of 
the  church,  where  the  men  and  women  cannot  see  the 
preacher  on  account  of  these  architectural  adjuncts 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  ORATORY.      71 

which  run  up  to  the  ceiling  and  make  the  church  so 
beautiful  There  the  people  can  sit  and  look  at  the 
columns  during  the  whole  of  the  sermon-time. 

In  Dr.  Storrs's  church  in  Brooklyn*  there  was  for- 
merly a  space  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  between 
the  pulpit  and  the  pews.  It  has  been  changed.  But 
formerly  you  could  see  the  minister  only  down  to  his 
chest.  He  stood  in  that  box,  stuck  up  against  the  wall, 
and  then  came  a  great  space,  like  the  desert  of  Sahara ; 
and  over  on  the  other  side  of  it  began  to  be  his  audience. 
Before  he  can  fill  such  a  space  the  magnetic  influence 
of  the  man  is  all  lost.  He  has  squandered  one  of  the 
best  natural  forces  of  the  pulpit. 

That  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  When  a  man  is  made 
by  God  he  is  made  all  over,  and  every  part  is  necessary 
to  each  and  to  the  whole.  A  man's  whole  form  is  a 
part  of  his  public  speaking.  His  feet  speak  and  so  do 
his  hands.  You  put  a  man  in  one  of  these  barrelled 
pulpits,  where  there  is  no  responsibility  laid  upon  him 
as  to  his  body,  ancf  he  falls  into  all  manner  of  gawky 
attitudes,  and  rests  himself  like  a  country  horse  at  a 
hitching-post.  He  sags  down,  and  has  no  consciousness 
of  his  awkwardness.  But  bring  him  out  on  a  platform, 
and  see  how  much  more  manly  he  becomes,  how  much 
more  force  comes  out !  The  moment  a  man  is  brought 
face  to  face  with  other  men,  then  does  the  influence  of 
each  act  and  react  upon  the  other.  I  have  seen  work- 
men talking  on  the  street,  stooping,  laughing,  and  slap- 
ping their  hands  on  their  knees.  "Why,  their  very  ges- 
tures were  a  good  oration,  although  I  did  not  hear  a 
word  that  was  said.  A  man  who  speaks  right  before 

*  "  The  Church  of  the  Pilgrims." 


72  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

his  audience,  and  without  notes,  will  speak,  little  by 
little,  with  the  gestures  of  the  whole  body,  and  not 
with  the  gestures  of  one  linger  only. 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. 

No  man  will  speak  long  with  any  interest  when  he 
thinks  about  himself.  You  may  have  the  very  best  of 
sermons,  but  if  your  boot  pinches  or  you  have  a  painful 
corn,  you  will  think  about  the  boot  and  about  the  corn, 
and  not  about  the  sermon.  A  man  needs  to  be  brought 
out  of  himself  as  much  as  possible.  You  must  relieve 
him  from  all  manner  of  external  embarrassment.  Put 
a  man  where  he  is  liable,  as  I  have  been,  standing  on 
the  head  of  a  barrel  at  a  political  meeting,  to  go  through, 
and  what  will  he  think  of?  Now,  on  a  little  narrow 
platform  one  can  walk  backward  and  forward  to  be 
sure,  but  if  he  go  toward  the  edges  ever  so  little,  he  is 
in  fear  of  stumbling  off.  Yet  even  that  is  better  than 
a  box-pulpit.  "What  has  that  to  do  with  preaching  ? 
What  do  you  want  with  it  ?  What  is  it  for  ? 

This  evil  is  not  confined  to  pulpits  merely,  but  to  all 
places  where  a  speaker  has  to  address  a  large  body 
of  men.  I  think  the  matter  so  important,  that  I  tell  the 
truth,  and  lie  not,  when  I  say  that  I  would  not  accept  a 
settlement  in  a  very  advantageous  place,  if  I  was  obliged 
to  preach  out  of  one  of  those  old-fashioned  swallow's- 
nests  on  the  wall. 

NEARNESS  TO  THE  AUDIENCE. 

The  next  point  you  should  look  to  is  to  have  your 
pews  as  near  as  possible  to  the  speaker.  A  preacher 
must  be  a  man  among  men.  There  is  a  force  —  call  it 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN   ORATORY.  73 

magnetism,  or  electricity,  or  what  you  will  —  in  a 
man,  which  is  a  personal  element,  and  which  flows  from 
a  speaker  who  is  en  rapport  with  his  audience.  This 
principle  should  be  utilized  in  the  work  of  preaching. 
I  do  not  say  that  Jonathan  Edwards  could  not  have 
preached  under  the  pulpit  disadvantage.  He  could 
have  preached  out  of  anything.  But  there  are  not 
many  men  like  Jonathan  Edwards.  The  average  man 
needs  all  the  extraneous  advantages  he  can  press  into 
his  service. 

People  often  say,  "  Do  you  not  think  it  is  much  more 
inspiring  to  speak  to  a  large  audience  than  a  small 
one  ? "  No,  I  say ;  I  can  speak  just  as  well  to  twelve 
persons  as  to  a  thousand,  provided  those  twelve  are 
crowded  around  me  and  close  together,  so  that  they 
touch  each  other.  But  even  a  thousand  people,  with 
four  feet  space  between  every  two  of  them,  would  be 
just  the  same  as  an  empty  room.  Every  lecturer  will 
understand  what  I  mean,  who  has  ever  seen  such  audi- 
ences and  addressed  them.  But  crowd  your  audience 
together,  and  you  will  set  them  off  with  not  half  the 
effort. 

Brother  Day,  the  son  of  old  President  Day,  of  Yale 
College,  was  one  of  my  right-hand  men  in  founding 
the  Plymouth  Church  in  Brooklyn ;  and  being  a  civil 
engineer,  and  the  church  having  voted  to  build,  he  went 
into  my  study  with  me  to  plan  the  edifice.  He  asked 
me  what  I  wanted,  in  the  first  place,  and  how  many 
people  I  wanted  the  church  to  seat.  I  told  him. 
"Very  good,"  he  said;  "and  how  do  you  want  them 
located  ? "  "I  want  them  to  surround  me,  so  that 
they  will  come  up  on  every  side,  and  behind  me,  so 

4 


74  LECTUKES   ON   PREACHING. 

that  I  shall  be  in  the  centre  of  the  crowd,  and  have 
the  people  surge  all  about  me."  The  result  is,  that 
there  is  not  a  better  constructed  hall  in  the  world  for 
the  purposes  of  speaking  and  hearing  than  Plymouth 
Church.  Charles  Dickens,  after  giving  one  of  his  read- 
ings in  it,  sent  me  special  word  not  to  build  any  other 
hall  for  speaking ;  that  Plymouth  Church  was  perfect. 
It  is  perfect,  because  it  was  built  on  a  principle, — 
the  principle  of  social  and  personal  magnetism,  which 
emanates  reciprocally  from  a  speaker  and  from  a  close 
throng  of  hearers.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
element  of  all  the  external  conditions  conducive  to 
good  and  effective  preaching. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

REV.  DR.  BACON.  —  Would  you  recommend  the  hanging  of  one 
or  two  architects  by  courjt-martial  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  — :  I  do  not  know  that  a  court-martial 
•would  be  the  proper  tribunal  by  which  to  try  them, 
but  I  would  at  least  make  them  recite  the  "Westminster 
Catechism  every  morning  as  a  punishment.  Architects, 
however,  do  a  great  deal  of  good  work.  They  certainly 
help,  by  the  exterior  of  churches,  to  beautify  our  towns 
and  villages.  But  there  is  a  certain  thing  that  I  never 
found  an  architect  to  be  wise  about,  —  ventilation.  I 
never  knew  anybody  else  who  was.  There  is  no  diffi- 
culty in  ventilating  a  house  when  there  is  nobody  in  it. 
The  difficulty  is  to  have  a  house  full  of  people,  and 
then  to  ventilate  it.  How  can  you  get  fresh  air  into 
a  room,  after  letting  out  the  bad  air  ?  Draughts  will 
be  caused,  and  people  will  take  cold.  That  question 
architects  have  never  been  able  to  solve. 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  IN  OEATOEY.       75 

In  reference  to  prayer-meetings,  this  lecture  has  a 
bearing  which  I  may  as  well  mention  here.  One  of  the 
great  difficulties  with  them  ordinarily  is  that  people  are 
so  separated  as  to  lose  the  whole  social  element.  You 
will  notice  that,  after  a  prayer-meeting,  which  has  been 
very  dull  and  very  stiff  and  very  proper,  has  been 
closed,  and  the  brethren  gather  around  the  stove,  they 
commence  talking  socially  among  themselves,  and  then 
it  is  that  the  real  conference-meeting  begins.  One  dea- 
con says,  "  Brother  So-and-so,  when  you  were  speaking 
on  such  a  topic  you  said  so  and  so."  He  goes  on  and 
makes  quite  an  effective  little  talk,  but  you  could  not 
have  dragged  it  out  of  him  with  an  ox-team  during  the 
meeting;  and  so  one  and  another  will  speak  up  and 
join  in,  and  they  will  get  warmly  interested  in  their 
discussion.  Around  the  stove  was  the  real  meeting. 
The  other  was  the  mere  simulacrum  of  a  meeting. 


IV. 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATUEE. 

February  8,  1872. 

iY  impression  is  that  preachers  are  quite 
as  well  acquainted  with  human  nature  as 
the  average  of  wTell-informed  citizens,  but 
far  less  than  lawyers,  or  merchants,  or 
teachers,  or,  especially,  politicians.  The  preachers  of 
America  have  been,  I  think,  as  intelligent  and  suc- 
cessful as  any  that  ever  lived.  As  a  body  of  men  they 
have  been  upright,  discreet,  and  wise  in  the  general 
management  of  the  affairs  of  Christian  churches.  As 
a  body,  they  have  in  their  personal  and  administrative 
or  pastoral  relations  been,  on  the  whole,  sagacious  in 
matters  pertaining  to  human  nature.  Nevertheless, 
Preachers,  both  English  and  American,  have  not 
preached  to  man's  nature,  as  it  is. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  applications  of  sermons,  par- 
ticularly such  as  are  known  in  America  as  Eevival 
Sermons,  much  knowledge  of  human  nature  is  shown, 
and  efficient  use  is  made  of  it.  But,  in  a  larger  gen- 
eralization, it  may  be  said  that  there  have  been  but  two 
schools  of  Preachers.  One  may  be  called  the  Ecclesi- 
astical school;  in  which  term  I  include  the  whole 


THE  -STUDY  OF   HUMAN  NATURE.  77 

body  of  men  who  regard  the  Church  OR  earth  as 
something  to  be  administered,  and  themselves  as  chan- 
nels, in  some  sense,  of  Divine  grace,  to  direct  the  flow 
of  that  Divine  institution.  Ecclesiastical  preachers  are 
those  who  administer  largely  and  preach  incidentally, 
if  one  might  say  "so.  There  is  also  the  Dogmatic  school 
of  Preachers,  or  those  who  have  relied  upon  a  pre-exist- 
ing system  of  truth,  which  has  been  founded  before  their 
day  and  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation,  and 
who  apparently  proceed  upon  the  supposition  that  their 
whole  duty  is  discharged  when  they  have  made  a  regu- 
lar and  repetitious  statement  of  all  the  great  points  of 
doctrine  from  time  to  time. 

NECESSITIES    OF   THE   FUTURE. 

Now,  the  school  of  the  future  (if  I  am  a  prophet,  and 
I  am,  of  course,  satisfied  in  my  own  mind  that  I  am  !)  is 
what  may  be  called  a  Life  ScJwol.  This  style  of  preach- 
ing is  to  proceed,  not  so  much  upon  the  theory  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  Church  and  its  ordinances,  or  upon  a 
pre-existing  system  of  truth  which  is  in  the  Church 
somewhere  or  somehow,  as  upon  the  necessity  for  all 
teachers,  first,  to  study  the  strengths  and  the  weaknesses 
of  human  nature  minutely ;  and  then  to  make  use  of 
such  portions  of  the  truth  as  are  required  by  the  special 
needs  of  man,  and  for  the  development  of  the  spiritual 
side  of  human  nature  over  the  animal  or  lower  side  — 
the  preparation  of  man  in  his  higher  nature  for  a  nobler- 
existence  hereafter.  It  is  a  life-school  in  this  respect, 
that  it  deals  not  with  the*  facts  of  the  past,  except  in  so 
far  as  they  can  be  made  food  for  the  present  and  factors 
of  the  life  that  now  is ;  but  rather  studies  to  understand 


78  LECTURES   OX  PREACHING. 

men,  and  to  deal  with  them,  face  to  face  and  heart  to 
heart,  —  yea,  even  to  mold  them  as  an  artist  molds  his 
clay  or  carves  his  statue.  And  in  regard  to  such  a 
school  as  that,  while  there  has  been  much  done  inci- 
dentally, the  revised  procedure  of  education  yet  awaits 
development  and  accomplishment ;  and  I  think  that 
our  profession  is  in  danger,  and  in  great  danger,  of 
going  under,  and  of  working  effectively  only  among  the 
relatively  less  informed  and  intelligent  of  the  commun- 
ity; of  being  borne  with,  in  a  kind  of  contemptuous 
charity,  or  altogether  neglected,  by  the  men  of  culture 
who  have  been  strongly  developed  on  their  moral  side, 
—  not  their  moral  side  as  connected  with  revealed  re- 
ligion, but  as  connected  rather  with  human  knowledge 
and  worldly  wisdom.  The  question,  then,  comes  up, 
Do  men  need  this  intimately  practical  instruction  ? 
and  if  so,  must  there  be  to  meet  it  this  life-school  of 
preachers  ? 

RELATION    OF    BIBLE     TRUTH    TO    CHRISTIANITY    IN    THE 
WORLD. 

But  I  am  asked,  "  Have  we  not,  in  the  truth  as  it  has 
been  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  everything  that  is  needed  ? 
If  a  man  take  the  Gospels,  and  the  life  and  sayings  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  preach  these,  is  he  not  thor- 
oughly furnished  to  every  good  work,  and  does  he  need 
to  go  outside  of  the  Bible  ?  "  Yes,  he  does,  for  no  man 
can  take  the  inside  of  the  Bible,  if  he  does  not  know 
how  to  take  the  outside. 

The  kingdom  of  God  and  of  truth,  as  it  is  laid  down 
in  the  New  Testament,  is  a  kingdom  of  seeds.  They 
have  been  sown  abroad,  and  have  been  growing  and  de- 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  79 

veloping  in  the  world ;  and,  whereas,  when  they  were 
initiated  they  were  but  seminal  forms,  now  they  have 
spread  like  the  banyan-tree.  And  shall  I  go  back  and 
talk  about  acorns  after  I  have  learned  about  oaks  ? 
Shall  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  Infinite  Truth  that  is 
in  Jesus  Christ  is,  all  of  it,  comprised  in  the  brief  and 
fragmentary  histories  that  are  contained  in  the  four 
Evangelists;  that  human  life  has  been  nothing;  that 
there  is  no  Providence  or  inspiration  in  the  working  of 
God's  truth  among  mankind ;  no  purposed  connection 
between  the  history  of  the  world  for  eighteen  hundred 
years,  vitalized  by  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
those  truths  in  the  New  Testament  ?  All  that  Chris- 
tianity has  produced  is  a  part  of  Christianity.  All  that 
has  been  evolved  in  human  existence  you  may  find  as 
germ-forms  in  the  Bible ;  but  you  must  not  shut  your- 
selves up  to  those  germ-forms,  with  stupid  reverence 
merely  for  the  literal  text  of  the  gospel.  It  is  the  gos- 
pel alive,  the  gospel  as  it  has  been  made  victorious  in 
its  actual  conflict  with  man's  lower  nature,  that  you 
are  to  preach.  What  Christ  is  you  are  to  learn,  indeed, 
with  all  reverence,  from  the  historic  delineation  of  his 
sacred  person  and  life ;  but  also  you  are  to  read  him 
in  the  suffering  human  heart,  in  the  soul  triumphant 
over  suffering,  in  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  mother  for  her 
child,  in  the  heroic  father,  in  every  man  and  woman 
who  has  learned  from  Christ  some  new  development  of 
glorious  self-giving  for  noble  purposes.  These  are  the 
commentaries  expounded  to  you,  through  which  you 
shall  be  able  to  know  Christ  vitally.  All  human  na- 
ture that  has  been  impregnated  with  a  knowledge  of 
Christ  is  the  Bible  commentary  which  you  have  to 


80  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

read  in  order  to  know  who  Christ  is,  and  to  learn  that 
he  is  not  shut  up  in  the  Gospels  alone. 

EXAMPLE   OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

It  is  said  that  ministers  ought  not  to  know  any- 
thing but  "Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,"  but  that 
is  said  in  a  different  manner  from  that  of  the  Apos- 
tle. He  did  not  say,  "  I  preach  nothing  but  the  his- 
torical Christ  and  him  crucified."  He  said  that  he 
put  the  whole  dependence  of  his  ministry  upon  the 
force  that  was  generated  from  Christ  and  him  crucified ; 
and  not  upon  his  own  personal  power,  presence,  or 
eloquence.  He  relied  upon  the  living  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God,  as  revealed  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He 
depended  upon  moral  power ;  and  it  is  a  perversion  to 
say  that  men  are  to  preach  nothing  but  the  literal, 
textual  Christ,  or  the  literal,  textual  four  Gospels,  or 
the  literal,  textual  Epistles ;  for  all  of  life  is  open  to 
you.  You  have  a  right  to  preach  from  everything, 
from  the  stars  in  the  zenith  to  the  lowest  form  of 
creation  upon  'earth.  All  things  belong  to  you,  for  you 
are  Christ's.  The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness  of 
it.  The  Lord  is  our  Father,  and  therefore  we  are  heirs. 

It  is  also  said,  "  Are  we  wiser  than  the  Apostles 
were  ? "  I  hope  so.  I  should  be  ashamed  if  we  were 
not.  "  Are  we  better  preachers  than  they  were  ? " 
Yes,  we  ought  to  be  better  preachers  in  our  time  than 
they  would  be.  They  were  adapted  to  their  times,  ad- 
mirably ;  but  I  think  it  is  as  much  a  misapplication 
of  things  to  bring  down  literally  the  arguments  of 
the  Apostles  from  Jerusalem  to  our  times,  as  it  would 
have  been,  were  it  possible,  to  carry  back  all  the  scien- 


THE   STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  81 

tific  knowledge,  and  all  the  developed  political  econ- 
omy which  we  now  have,  and  preach  them  in  old 
Jerusalem,  within  the  Temple.  "We  should  he  barba- 
rians to  them,  and  they  would  be  comparative  barba- 
rians to  us.  Adaptation  to  the  times  in  which  we,  Hrr, 
is  the  law  of  Providence.  The  Apostles  were  adapted 
to  their  times.  We  must  be  similarly  adapted,  —  not 
in  a  passive,  servile  way,  but  in  a  living,  active  way, 
and  by  taking  an  interest  in  the  things  which  men  do 
now.  What  did  the  Apostles  preach  ?  Did  they  not 
preach  like  Jews  to  Jews,  and  Greeks  to  Greeks  ? 
They  had  liberty,  and  they  took  the  things  they  found 
to  be  needful  in  their  time,  to  the  people  to  whom 
they  ministered.  The  following  of  the  Apostolic  £t- 
ample  is  not  to  pursue,  blindly,  their  external  forms, 
but  to  follow  the  light  of  their  humanity  and  that  of 
the  gospel.  This  was  the  example  they  set :  What- 
ever tended  to  elevate  men  from  the  lower  to  the 
higher  sphere,  the  Apostles  thought  lawful  for  them 
to  employ  in  their  ministry. 

You  may  ask  if  they  did  not  understand  human 
nature  without  all  the  study  that  I  am  recommending. 
I  think  that  they  did  understand  a  great  deal  of  hu- 
man nature.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  you 
should  not  attempt  to  understand  as  much  and  more 
than  they  did;  for  such  an  argument  as  that  would 
really  be  not  only  against  a  more  scientific  basis  of 
knowledge  of  human  nature  for  the  modern  preacher, 
but  against  all  development  of  every  kind,  against  all 
growth,  against  all  culture  and  all  refinement.  You 
must  not  pattern  yourselves  on  the  antique  models, 
altogether,  except  in  principle. 

4*  F 


82  LECTURES  ON   PREACHING. 

WEAKNESS   OF  GOSPEL-PREACHING   IN  THE  PAST. 

It  is  said  by  some,  "  Has  not  Christianity  been 
preached  by  plain  men,  who  did  not  understand  so 
very  much  about  human  nature,  in  every  age  of  the 
world?"  It  has;  and  what  have  eighteen  hundred 
years  to  show  for  it  ?  To-day  three  fourths  of  the 
globe  is  heathen,  or  but  semi-civilized.  After  eighteen 
bundled  years  of  preaching  of  the  faith  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  living  Spirit  of  God,  how  far  has 
Christianity  gone  in  the  amelioration  of  the  condition 
of  the  race  ?  I  think  that  one  of  the  most  humiliating 
things  that  can  be  contemplated,  one  of  the  things 
most  savory  to  the  scorner,  and  which  seems  the  most 
likely  to  infuse  a  sceptical  spirit  into  men,  is  to  look  at 
the  pretensions  of  the  men  who  boast  of  the  progress 
of  their  work,  and  then  to  look  at  their  performances. 
I  concede  that  there  has  been  a  great  deal  done, 
and  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  preparation  for 
more ;  but  the  torpors,  the  vast  retrocessions,  the  long 
lethargic  periods,  and  the  wide  degeneration  of 
Christianity  into  a  kind  of  ritualistic  mummery  and 
conventional  usage,  show  very  plainly  that  the  past 
history  of  preaching  Christianity  is  not  to  be  our  model 
We  must  find  a  better  mode. 

SPECIAL  REASONS   FOR   STUDYING   HUMAN  NATURE. 

We  need  to  study  human  nature,  in  the  first  place, 
because  it  illustrates  the  Divine  nature,  which  we  are  to 
interpret  to  men.  Divine  attribute  corresponds  to  our 
idea  of  human  faculty.  The  terms  are  analogous.  You 
cannot  interpret  the  Divine  nature  except  through 


THE  STUDY   OF   HUMAN  NATURE.  83 

some  knowledge  of  human  nature.  There  are  those 
who  believe  that  God  transcends  men,  not  simply  in 
quality  and  magnitude,  but  in  kind.  Without  under- 
taking to  confirm  or  deny  this,  I  say  that  the  only  part 
of  the  Divine  nature  that  we  can  understand  is  that 
part  which  corresponds  to  ourselves,  and  that  all  which 
lies  outside  of  what  we  can  recognize  is  something  that 
never  can  be  interpreted  by  us.  It  is  not  within  our 
reach.  "Whatever  it  may  be,  therefore,"  of  God,  that  by 
searching  we  can  find  out,  all  that  we  interpret,  and 
all  that  we  can  bring,  in  its  moral  influence,  to  bear 
upon  men,  is  in  its  study  but  a  higher  form  of  human 
mental  philosophy. 

Now,  let  us  see  what  government  is.  It  is  the  science 
of  managing  men.  What  is  moral  government  ?  It  is 
moral  science,  or  the  theory  upon  which  God  manages 
men.  What  is  the  management  of  men,  again,  but 
a  thing  founded  upon  human  nature  ?  So  that  to 
understand  moral  government  you  are  run  right  back 
to  the  same  necessity.  You  must  comprehend  that  on 
which  God's  moral  government  itself  stands,  which  is 
human  nature. 

But,  again,  the  fundamental  doctrine  on  which  our 
labors  stand  is  the  need  of  the  transformation  of  man's 
nature  by  the  Divine  Spirit.  This  is  altogether  a  ques- 
tion of  psychology.  The  old  theological  way  of  stating 
man's  sinfulness,  namely,  "  Total  Depravity,"  was  so 
gross  and  so  undiscriminating,  and  was  so  full  of  endless 
misapprehensions,  that  it  has  largely  dropped  out  of 
use.  Men  no  longer  are  accustomed, 'I  think,  to  use 
that  term  as  once  they  did.  That  all  men  are  sinful,  is 
taught ;  but  "  what  is  meant  by '  sinful '  ? "  is  the  ques- 


84  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

tion  which  immediately  comes  back.  Instantly  the 
schools  begin  to  discuss  it.  Is  it  a  state  of  the  fibre 
of  the  substance  or  the  soul  ?  Is  it  any  aberration,  any 
excess,  any  disproportion  of  natural  elements  ?  Wherein 
does  the  fault  lie  ?  What  is  it  ?  The  moment  you 
discuss  this,  you  are  discussing  human  nature.  It  is 
the  mind  you  are  discussing.  In  order  -to  know  what 
is  an  aberration,  you  must  know  what  is  normal.  In 
order  to  know  what  is  in  excess,  you  must  know  what 
is  the  true  measure/  Who  can  tell  whether  a  man  is 
selfish,  unless  he  knows  what  is  benevolent  ?  Who 
can  tell  whether  a  man  has  departed  from  the  correct 
idea,  unless  he  has  some  conception  of  that  idea  ?  The 
very  foundation  on  which  you  stand  to-day  necessitates 
knowledge  of  man  as  its  chief  basis. 

Consider,  too,  how  a  minister,  teaching  the  moral 
government  of  God,  the  nature  of  God,  and  the  con- 
dition of  man  and  his  necessities,  is  obliged  to  approach 
the  human  soul.  Men  are  sluggish,  or  are  so  occupied 
and  filled  witli  what  are  to  them  important  interests, 
that,  ordinarily,  when  a  preacher  comes  into  a  com- 
munity, he  finds  it  either  slumbering,  or  averse  to  his 
message,  or  indifferent  to  it ;  and,  in  either  case,  his 
business  is  to  stimulate  the  moral  nature.  But  how 
shall  he  know  the  art  of  stimulating  man's  moral 
nature  who  has  never  studied  it  ?  You  must  arouse 
men  and  prepare  them  to  be  molded.  How  can  you 
do  it  if  you  know  nothing  about  them  ? 

A  man  who  would  minister  to  a  diseased  body  must 
have  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  organs,  and  of  the 
wliole  structure  of  the  body,  in  a  sanitary  condition. 
We  oblige  our  physicians  to  know  anatomy  and  physi- 


THE   STUDY   OF   HUMAN    NATURE.  85 

ology.  We  oblige  them  to  study  morbid  anatomy,  as 
well  as  normal  conditions.  We  say  that  no  man  is 
prepared  to  practise  without  this  knowledge,  and  the 
law  interferes,  or  does  as  far  as  it  can,  to  compel  it. 
Now,  shall  a  man  know  hofr  to  administer  to  that 
which  is  a  thousand  times  more  subtle  and  important 
than  the  body,  and  which  is  the  exquisite  blossom  of 
the  highest  development  and  perfection  of  the  human 
system,  namely,  the  mind  in  its  modern  development, 
—  shall  he  assume  to  deal  with  that,  and  raise  and 
stimulate  it,  being  ignorant  of  its  nature  ?  A  man  may 
know  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Eevelation,  he  may 
know  every  theological  treatise  from  the  day  of  Au- 
gustine to  the  day  of  Dr.  Taylor,  and  if  he  does  not 
understand  human  nature,  he  is  not  fit  to  preach. 

Suppose  a  man  should  undertake  to  cut  off  your  leg 
because  he  had  been  a  tool-maker.  He  had  made  lan- 
cets, probes,  saws,  and  that  sort  of  thing,  all  his  life ; 
but  he  had  never  seen  a  man's  leg  amputated,  and  did 
not  know  exactly  where  the  arteries  or  veins  lie.  Sup- 
pose he  should  think  that  making  surgeons'  tools  fitted 
him  to  be  a  surgeon ;  would  it  ?  The  surgeon  must 
know  his  tools  and  how  to  handle  them,  but  he  must 
know,  too,  the  system  on  which  he  is  going  to  use  them. 
And  shall  a  man,  charged  with  the  care  of  the  soul, 
sharpen  up  his  understanding  with  moral  distinctions 
and  learned  arguments,  and  know  all  about  the  theories 
of  theology  from  Adam  down  to  our  day,  and  yet 
know  nothing  of  the  organism  upon  which  all  these 
instrumentalities  are  to  be  used  ?  Shall  he  know 
nothing  about  man  himself  ?  The  student  who  goes 
out  to  his  work  with  a  wide  knowledge  of  theology 


86  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

and  no  knowledge  of  human  nature  is  not  half  fitted 
for  his  duty.  One  reason  why  so  many  succeed  is, 
that  although  they  have  no  formal  instruction  in  human 
nature,  they  have  learned  much  in  the  family,  and  in 
the  school,  and  by  other  indirect  methods,  and  so  have 
a  certain  stock  —  I  might  say  an  illegitimate  stock  — 
of  knowledge,  but  one  which  was  not  provided  in  the 
system  of  their  studies. 

If  I  might  be  allowed  to  criticise  the  general  theologi- 
cal course,  or  to  recommend  anything  in  relation  to  it,  I 
should  say  that  one  of  the  prime  constituents  of  the 
training  should  be  a  study  of  the  human  soul  and  body 
from  beginning  to  end.  We  must  arouse  and  stimulate 
men,  and  seek  to  bring  them  into  new  relations  with 
truth,  with  ourselves,  and  with  the  community. 

Every  man  has  a  right  to  go  to  you,  if  you  are  a  min- 
ister who  has  aroused  him  to  a  sense  of  his  relations 
with  God,  and  say  to  you :  "  Now,  my  circumstances  and 
temptations  are  thus  and  so ;  give  me  some  sort  of  a 
chart  for  my  future  guidance."  But  how  can  you,  if 
you  know  nothing  about  human  nature  ?  You  leave 
him  to  fumble  his  way  along  the  best  he  can.  There  is 
no  special  chart  for  him  at  your  hands.  Every  man  has 
to  run  his  ship  in  a  channel  peculiar  to  himself.  There 
never  were  two  men  in  the  world  that  could  follow  each 
other  like  two  ships  being  piloted  into  New  York  harbor. 
No  two  men  are  alike  ;  therefore,  each  man  has  to  adapt 
to  himself  that  which  is  brought  to  him  for  his  own 
special  use  and  improvement.  What  many  men  need 
is  that  their  minister  shall  be  able  to  form  such  an 
analysis  of  their  nature  that  he  can  suggest  where  such 
a  development  should  be  repressed,  and  where  another 


THE  STUDY   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  87 

should  be  stimulated,  and  tell  the  man  how  to  use  him- 
self, socially  as  well  as  morally.  Shall  a  man  be  born 
like  a  little  child  into  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
then  be  left  to  shift  for  himself — as  men  mostly  are, 
after  being  admitted  into  the  church  and  talked  to  for 
a  few  weeks  —  after  the  revival  has  spent  its  force  ? 
Shall  they  be  left  to  return  to  their  own  uninstructed 
devices,  and  find  their  way,  during  the  rest  of  their 
lives,  as  best  they  can  ?  Thanks  to  the  real  intelli- 
gence of  the  community  and  to  the  heads  of  families, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  progress  made  in  this  direction ; 
but  how  far  it  arises  from  a  true  ideal  of  preaching  and 
the  administration  of  the  truth  in  the  hands  of  wise 
preachers,  I  cannot  say. 

How  few  ministers  are  there  who  can  really  comfort 
men,  and  how  much  need  of  comforting  there  is  in  this 
world !  How  the  office  of  comforter  has  fallen  into 
disuse  !  How  much  nobler  woman  is  than  man  in  the 
administration  of  this  gospel-gift  from  Jesus  Christ! 
"Woman  is  ordained  to  perform  many  things  much 
better  than  man,  on  account  of  her  superior  delicacy 
of  organization  and  keenness  of  perception.  Woman 
is  a  better  instructor,  from  her  very  make  and  educa- 
tion, and  as  the  molder  and  trainer  of  children  in  the 
household  is  by  far  man's  superior. 

THE  WORLD'S  ADVANCEMENT  IN  THOUGHT. 

There  is  another  consideration  that  we  cannot  blink, 
and  that  is,  that  we  are  in  danger  of  having  the  intelli- 
gent part  of  society  go  past  us.  The  study  of  human 
nature  is  not  going  to  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  church 
or  the  ministry.  It  is  going  to  be  a  part  of  every  sys- 


88  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

tern  of  liberal  education,  and  will  be  pursued  on  a 
scientific  basis.  There  is  being  now  applied  among 
scientists  a  greater  amount  of  real,  searching,  discrim- 
inating thought,  tentative  and  experimental,  to  the 
whole  structure  and  functions  of  man  and  the  method 
of  the  development  of  mental  force,  than  ever  has  been 
expended  upon  it  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  put 
together.  More  men  are  studying  it,  and  they  are 
coming  to  results,  and  these  results  are  starting,  directly 
or  indirectly,  a  certain  kind  of  public  thought  and  feel- 
ing. In  religion,  the  psychological  school  of  mental 
philosophers  are  not  going  to  run  in  the  old  grooves  of 
Christian  doctrine  ;  they  are  not  going  to  hold  the  same 
generic  ideas  respecting  men.  And  if  ministers  do  not 
make  their  theological  systems  conform  to  facts  as  they 
are,  if  they  do  not  recognize  what  men  are  studying, 
the  time  will  not  be  far  distant  when  the  pulpit  will  be 
like  the  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness.  And  it  will 
not  be  "  Prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord,"  either.  This 
work  is  going  to  be  done.  The  providence  of  God  is 
rolling  forward  a  spirit  of  investigation  that  Christian 
ministers  must  meet  and  join.  There  is  no  class  of 
people  upon  earth  who  can  less  afford  to  let  the  develop- 
ment of  truth  run  ahead  of  them  than  they.  You  cannot 
wrap  yourselves  in  professional  mystery,  for  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  is  such  that  it  is  preached  with  power 
throughout  all  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  world, 
by  these  investigators  of  his  wondrous  creation.  You 
cannot  go  back  and  become  apostles  of  the  dead  past, 
drivelling  after  ceremonies,  and  letting  the  world  do  the 
thinking  and  studying.  There  must  be  a  now  spirit 
infused  into  the  ministry.  Some  men  are  so  afraid 


THE   STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  89 

that,  in  breaking  away  from  the  old  systems  and  origi- 
nal forms  and  usages,  Christianity  will  get  the  go-by  ! 
Christianity  is  too  vital,  too  really  Divine  in  its  inner- 
most self,  to  fear  any  snch  results.  There  is  no  trouble 
about  Christianity.  You  take  care  of  yourselves  and 
of  men,  and  learn  the  truth  as  God  shows  it  to  you  all 
the  time,  and  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  Christianity  ; 
that  will  take  care  of  itself.  You  might  as  well  be 
afraid  that  battles  would  rend  the  sky,  or  that  some- 
thing would  stop  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun. 
The  power  of  Divine  love  and  mercy  is  not  going  to 
be  stopped,  and  will  certainly  not  be  stopped  by  the 
things  that  are  true. 

You  cannot  afford  to  shut  your  eyes  to  the  truths  of 
human  nature.  Every  Christian  minister  is  bound  to 
fairly  look  at  these  tilings.  Every  scientific  man  who 
is  studying  human  nature  is  bound  to  open  his  eyes 
and  ears,  and  to  study  all  its  phenomena.  I  read  that 
Huxley  refused  to  attend  a  seance  of  Spiritualists.  He 
said,  contemptuously,  that  it  was  a  waste  of  time,  and 
gave  expression  to  other  sentiments  of  disdain.  I  am 
not  an  adherent  of  the  spiritual  doctrines  ;  I  have  never 
seen  my  way  'clear  to  accept  them.  But  phenomena 
which  are  wrapping  up  millions  of  men  and  vitally 
affecting  their  condition  are  not  to  be  disdained  by 
scientific  men,  whose  business  it  is  to  study  phenome- 
nology of  all  kinds.  No  scientific  man  can  rightly 
refuse  to  examine  them.  He  may  say  that  he  has  no 
time  to  do  it,  and  that  some  other  man  must  investi- 
gate them.  That  would  be  right.  All  men  cannot  do 
all  things.  But  to  speak  of  anything  of  this  kind  writh 
contempt  is  not  wise.  I  am.  not  afraid  to  look  at  this 


90  LECTURES  ON  PEE  ACHING. 

thing,  or  anything.  I  arn  not  afraid  that  we  are  going 
to  have  the  New  Testament  taken  away  from  us.  We 
must  be  more  industrious  in  investigation,  more  honest 
in  deduction,  and  more  willing  to  take  the  truth  in  its 
new  fullness ;  and  we  must  be  imbued  with  that  sim- 
plicity in  faith  and  truth  which  we  inculcate  in  our 
people. 

HOW  TO   STUDY  HUMAN  NA.TUEE. 

"With  this  general  statement  of  the  necessity  of  the 
study  of  the  human  nature  and  mind  in  its  structure 
and  functions,  I  will  pass  on  to  the  next  point,  which 
is  the  way  in  which  this  study  is  to  be  prosecuted. 
How  are  we  going  about  it  ? 

In  the  first  place,  you  must  study  facts,  scientifi- 
cally. I  think  that  such  works  as  Bain's,  while  criti- 
cisable  in  many  directions,  are  nevertheless  works  of 
very  great  interest  as  showing  a  wise  tendency  in  the 
investigation  of  the  mind  of  man,  —  the  founding  of 
mental  philosophy  upon  physiology.  I  do  not  com- 
mend the  system  in  all  its  particulars,  but  I  speak  of 
its  tendency,  which  is  in  the  right  direction.  I  would 
say  the  same,  also,  of  Herbert  Spencer's  works.  There 
is  much  in  him  that  I  believe  will  be  found  sovereign 
and  noble  in  the  final  account  of  truth,  when  our 
knowledge  of  it  is  rounded  up.  There  was  never  a 
field  of  wheat  that  ripened  which  did  not  have  a  good 
deal  of  straw  and  husk  with  it.  I  doubt  not  but  Her- 
bert Spencer  will  have  much  straw  and  husk  that  will 
need  to  be  burned.  Nevertheless,  the  direction  he  is 
moving  in  is  a  wise  one,  which  is  the  study  of  human 
nature,  of  the  totality  of  man. 


THE   STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  91 

It  was  believed  once  that  man  did  not  think  by  the 
brain.  I  believe  that  notion  has  gone  by.  Most  men 
now  admit  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind.  It 
is  held  that  it  cannot  be  partitioned  off  into  provinces, 
and  that  there  are  no  external  indications  of  its  various 
functions.  I  shall  not  dispute  that  question  with  you. 
It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  there  is  an  organiza- 
tion which  we  call  the  nervous  system  in  the  human 
body,  to  which  belong  the  functions  of  emotion,  intel- 
ligence, and  sensation,  and  that  that  is  connected  inti- 
mately with  the  whole  circulation  of  the  blood,  with 
the  condition  of  the  blood  as  affected  by  the  liver  and 
by  aeration  in  the  lungs ;  that  the  manufacture  of  the 
blood  is  dependent  upon  the  stomach.  So  a  man  is 
what  he  is,  not  in  one  part  or  another,  but  all  over  ;  one 
part  is  intimately  connected  with  the  other,  from  the 
animal  stomach  to  the  throbbing  brain;  and  when  a 
man  thinks,  he  thinks  the  whole  trunk  through.  Man's 
power  comes  from  the  generating  forces  that  are  in 
him,  namely,  the  digestion  of  nutritious  food  into  vital- 
ized blood,  made  fine  by  oxygenation  ;  an  organization 
by  which  that  blood  has  free  course  to  run  and  be  glo- 
rified ;  a  neck  that  will  allow  the  blood  to  flow  up  and 
down  easily  ;  a  brain  properly  organized  and  balanced  ; 
t\\e  whole  system  so  compounded  as  to  have  suscep- 
tibilities and  recuperative  force ;  immense  energy  to 
generate  resources  and  facility  to  give  them  out ;  —  all 
these  elements  go  to  determine  what  a  man's  working 
power  is.  And  shall  a  man  undertake  to  study  human 
nature,  everything  depending  upon  his  knowledge  of  it, 
and  not  study  the  prime  conditions  under  which,  human 
nature  must  exist? 


92  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

I  have  often  seen  young  ministers  sit  at  the  table, 
and  even  those  of  sixty  years  of  age,  eating  out  of  all 
proportion,  beyond  the  necessities  of  their  systems ; 
and  I  have  seen,  on  the  other  hand,  ministers  who  ate 
below  the  necessities  of  their  systems,  under  a  vague 
impression  that  sanctifying  grace  wrought  better  on 
an  empty  stomach  than  on  a  full  one.  It  seems  to  me 
that  all  Divine  grace  and  Divine  instruments  honor 
God's  laws  everywhere ;  and  that  the  best  condition 
for  grace  in  the  mental  system  is  that  in  which  the 
human  body  is  in  a  perfect  state  of  health.  That  is  a 
question  which  every  man  can  best  settle  for  himself. 
Some  men  under-sleep,  and  some  over-sleep ;  some  eat 
too  much,  and  some  too  little.  Some  men  use  stimu- 
lants who  do  not  need  them,  while  others  avoid  them 
who  need  them,  and  would  be  better  for  their  use. 
There  is  a  vast  amount  of  truth  relative  to  the  indi- 
vidual that  is  not  studied  by  the  minister,  though  it 
ought  to  be,  as  to  the  incoming  and  the  outflow  of 
force.  Some  clergymen  prepare  themselves  to  preach 
on  Sunday  by  sitting  up  very  late  on  Saturday  night, 
and  exhausting  their  vitality,  thus  compelling  them- 
selves to  force  their  overtasked  powers  to  extraordi- 
nary exertion  to  perform  their  Sabbath  duties ;  which 
entails  upon  them  the  horrors  of  Blue  Monday,  the  re- 
sult of  a  spasmodic  and  drastic  excitement.  It  is,  and 
it  ought  to  be,  a  purgatory  to  them.  You  must  study 
yourselves  as  men.  Is  there  no  self-knowledge  that 
can  be  acquired,  so  that  a  man  shall  know  how  to  be 
merciful  to  his  beast  ? 

You  see  that  whatever  relates  to  the  whole  organiza- 
tion of  the  human  body  and  its  relations  to  health  and 


THE  STUDY   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  93 

to  perfect  symmetry  must  be  studied,  for  all  these  re- 
lations are  intimate,  and  concern  both  your  own  work- 
ing powers  and  the  material  among  men  that  you  will 
have  to  work  on. 

METAPHYSICAL   STUDIES. 

In  studying  mental  philosophy  after  this  fashion  I 
would  not  have  you  ignore  metaphysics.  The  percep- 
tions of  those  subtle  relations,  near  and  remote,  specific 
and  generic,  that  obtain  among  spiritual  facts  of  differ- 
ent kinds,  I  understand  to  be  metaphysics  ;  and  that,  I 
suppose,  must  be  studied.  I  think  it  sharpens  men, 
and  renders  them  familiar  with  the  operations  of  the 
human  mind,  if  not  carried  too  far,  and  gives  them  a 
grasp  and  penetration  that  they  would  not  get  other- 
wise. It  is  favorable  to  moral  insight,  when  developed 
in  connection  with  the  other  sides  of  human  nature. 
YThile  I  say  that  you  ought  to  study  mental  philosophy 
with  a  strong  physiological  side  to  it,  I  do  not  wish  it 
to  be  understood  that  I  decry  mental  philosophy  with 
a  strong  metaphysical  side  to  it. 

PHRENOLOGY  AS  A  CONVENIENT  BASIS. 

There  is  one  question  beyond  that.  The  impor- 
tance of  studying  both  sides  of  mental  philosophy 
for  the  sake  of  religious  education  is  one  point ;  but 
when  the  question  comes  up  how  to  study  mental 
philosophy,  I  do  not  know  anything  that  can  compare 
in  facility  of  usableness  with  phrenology.  I  do  not 
suppose  that  phrenology  is  a  perfect  system  of  mental 
philosophy.  It  hits  here  and  there.  It  needs  revising, 
as,  in  its  present  shape,  it  is  crude ;  but  nevertheless 


94  LECTUEES   ON  PREACHING. 

when  it  becomes  necessary  to  talk  to  people  about 
themselves,  I  know  of  no  other  nomenclature  which  so 
nearly  expresses  what  we  need,  and  which  is  so  facile 
in  its  use,  as  phrenology.  Nothing  can  give  you  the 
formulated  analysis  of  mind  as  that  can.  Now  let  me 
say,  particularly,  a  few  things  about  this,  and  personally, 
too.  I  suppose  I  inherited  from  my  father  a  tendency 
or  intuition  to  read  man.  The  very  aptitude  that  I  rec- 
ognize in  myself  for  the  exercise  of  this  power  would 
indicate  a  pre-existing  tendency.  In  my  junior  college 
year  I  became,  during  the  visit  of  Spurzheim,  enamored 
of  phrenology.  For  twenty  years,  although  I  have  not 
made  it  a  special  study,  it  has  been  the  foundation  on 
which  I  have  worked.  Admit,  if  you  please,  it  is  not 
exactly  the  true  thing;  and  admit,  if  you  will,  that 
there  is  little  form  or  system  in  it ;  yet  I  have  worked 
with  it  much  as  botanists  worked  with  the  Linnasan 
system  of  botany,  the  classification  of  which  is  very 
convenient,  although  "an  artificial  one.  There  is  no 
natural  system  that  seems  to  correspond  to  human 
nature  so  nearly  as  phrenology  does. 

For  example,  you  assume  that  a  man's  brain  is  the 
general  organ  of  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  functions. 

I  see  a  man  with  a  small  brow  and  big  in  the  lower 
part  of  his  head,  like  a  bull,  and  I  know  that  that  man 
is  not  likely  to  be  a  saint.  All  the  reasoning  in  the 
world  would  not  convince  me  of  the  contrary,  but  I 
would  say  of  such  a  man,  that  he  had  very  intense 
ideas,  and  would  bellow  and  push  like  a  bull  of  Bashan. 
Now,  practically,  do  you  suppose  I  would  commence  to 
treat  with  such  a  man  by  flaunting  a  rag  in  his  face  ? 
My  first  instinct  in  regard  to  him  is  what  a  man  would 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATUEE.  95 

have  if  he  found  himself  in  a  field  with  a  wild  bull, 
wliich  would  be  to  put  himself  on  good  manners,  and 
use  means  of  conciliation,  if  possible. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  I  see  a  man  whose  forehead 
is  very  high  and  large,  but  who  is  thin  in  the  back  of 
the  head,  and  with  a  small  neck  and  trunk,  I  say  to  my- 
self, That  is  a  man,  probably,  whose  friends  are  always 
talking  about  how  much  there  is  in  him,  but  who  never 
does  anything.  He  is  a  man  who  has  great  organs,  but 
nothing  to  drive  them  -with.  He  is  like  a  splendid 
locomotive  without  a  boiler. 

Again,  you  will  see  a  man  with  a  little  bullet-head, 
having  accomplished  more  than  that  big-headed  man, 
who  ought  to  have  been  a  strong  giant  and  a  great 
genius.  The  bullet-headed  man  has  outstripped  the 
broad-browed  man  in  everything  he  undertook ;  and  peo- 
ple say, "  Where  is  your  phrenology  ? "  In  reply,  I  say, 
"  Look  at  that  bullet-headed  man,  and  see  what  he  has  to 
drive  his  bullet-head  with ! "  His  stomach  gives  evidence 
that  he  has  natural  forces  to  carry  forward  his  purposes. 
Then  look  at  the  big-headed  man.  He  can't  make  a 
spoonful  of  blood  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  what  he 
does  make  is  poor  and  thin.  Phrenology  classifies  the 
brain  regions  well  enough,  but  you  must  understand  its 
relations  to  physiology,  and  the  dependence  of  brain- 
work  upon  the  quantity  and  quality  of  blood  that  the 
man's  body  makes. 

You  may  ask,  "  "What  is  the  use  of  knowing  these 
things  ? "  All  the  use  in  the  world.  If  a  person  comes 
to  me,  with  dark,  coarse  hair,  I  know  he  is  tough  and 
enduring,  and  I  know  that,  if  it  is  necessary,  I  can  hit 
him  a  rap  to  arouse  him ;  but  if  I  see  a  person  who  has 


96  LECTURES   ON   PKEACHING. 

fine  silky  hair,  and  a  light  complexion,  I  know  that  he 
is  of  an  excitable  temperament,  and  must  be  dealt  with 
soothingly.  Again,  if  I  see  one  with  a  large  blue  watery- 
eye,  and  its  accompanying  complexion,  I  say  to  myself 
that  all  Mount  Sinai  could  not  wake  that  man  up.  I 
have  seen  men  of  that  stamp,  whom  you  could  no  more 
stimulate  to  action,  than  you  could  a  lump  of  dough  by 
blowing  a  resurrection  trump  over  it. 

Men  are  like  open  books,  if  looked  at  properly.  Sup- 
pose I  attempt  to  analyze  a  man's  deeds ;  I  can  do  it 
with  comparative  facility,  because  I  have  in  my  eye  the 
general  outline  of  the  man's  disposition  and  rifental  ten- 
dencies. A  deed  is  like  a  letter  stamped  from  a  die. 
The  motive  that  directs  the  deed  is  like  the  matrix  that 
molds  the  stamp.  You  may  know  the  mold  from  the 
impression  made  by  the  stamp.  You  must  know  what 
men  are,  in  order  to  reach  them,  and  that  is  a  part  of 
the  science  of  preaching.  If  there  is  any  profession  in 
the  world  that  can  afford  to  be  without  this  practical 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  it  certainly  is  not  the  pro^ 
fession  of  a  preacher. 

While  I  urge  the  study  of  man  from  the  scientific 
side,  let  me  say,  also,  that  this  study  is  not  enough, 
and  that  what  we  need  is  not  simply  this  elementary 
analytical  knowledge.  We  must  study  human  nature 
for  constructive  purposes,  also.  That  is  the  difference 
between  a  true  preacher  and  an  incompetent  one. 

The  lawyer  must  study  human  nature,  in  order  to 
get  at  the  facts  of  his  case ;  the  merchant,  for  the  sake 
of  his  own  profits ;  the  politician,  for  the  sake  of  carry- 
ing out  certain  political  ends  ;  but  these  do  not  imply 
that  men  are  to  be  made  better  or  worse.  A  minister 


THE  STUDY   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  97 

studies  human  nature -for  the  purpose  of  regenerating 
men.  We  study  men  as  florists  do '  flowers,  when  they 
wish  to  change  them  from  simple  blossoms  into  rare 
beauties.  The  object  of  the  florist  is  to  make  them 
larger,  to  enhance  their  color  or  fragrance,  or  whatever 
other  change  is  desired.  It  is  to  make  more  out  of 
human  nature  than  we  originally  find  in  it,  that  we  are 
studying  it  and  training  it. 

SOCIAL  HABITS. 

You  must  be  familiar  with  men ;  and  you  are  fortu- 
nate if  you  have  been  brought  up  in  a  public  school. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  human  nature  learned  by  boys 
among  boys,  and  by  young  men  among  young  men. 
That  is  one  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  large 
gatherings  of  young  men.  A  man  who  has  struggled 
out  from  between  the  stones  of  the  farm,  and  has  fought 
his  way  through  the  academy,  with  the  pity  of  every- 
body, —  a  pity  which  might  well  be  spared,  because  it 
was  God's  training,  —  has  a  fine  education  for  prac- 
tical life,  because  he  knows  men.  The  study  of  man  is 
the  highest  of  sciences. 

Besides  this  'general  knowledge  we  are  to  have,  we 
should  take  kindly  to  individual  men,  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  studying  them.  Now,  I  take  great  delight,  if 
ever  I  can  get  a  chance,  in  riding  on  the  top  of  an 
omnibus  with  the  driver,  and  talking  with  him.  What 
do  I  gain  by  that  ?  Why,  my  sympathy  goes  out  for 
these  men,  and  I  recognize  in  them  an  element  of 
brotherhood, — that  great  human  element  which  lies 
underneath  all  culture,  which  is  more  universal  and 
more  important  than  all  special  attributes,  which  is  the 

5  O 


98  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

great  generic  bond  of  humanity  between  man  and  man. 
If  ever  I  saw  one  of  those  men  in  my  church,  I  could 
preach  to  him,  and  hit  him  under  the  fifth  rib  with  an 
illustration,  much  better  than  if  I  had  not  been  ac- 
quainted with  him.  I  have  driven  the  truth  under 
many  a  plain  jacket.  But,  what  is  more,  I  never  found 
a  plain  man  in  this  world  who  could  not  tell  me  many 
things  that  I  did  not  know  before.  There  is  not  a  gate- 
keeper at  the  Fulton  Ferry,  or  an  engineer  or  deck- 
hand on  the  boats,  that  I  am  not  acquainted. with,  and 
they  help  me  in  more  ways  than  they  know  of.  If  you 
are  going  to  be  a  minister,  keep  very  close  to  plain 
folks ;  don't  get  above  the  common  people. 

There  is  no  danger  that  you  will  lose  your  sympathy 
with  culture  and  refinement,  as  some  people  seem  to 
fear.  There  is  no  danger  that  you  will  lose  your  purity 
and  sensitiveness.  There  will  be  nothing  incompatible 
in  this  course  with  the  performance  of  your  professional 
duties  as  a  preacher.  Good-heartedness  and  good, 
plain,  hearty  sympathy  with  men,  will  help  everything 
in  you  which  ought  to  be  helped,  and  diminish  those 
things  which  ought  to  be  diminished.  Study  human 
nature  by  putting  yourself  in  alliance  with  men.  See 
how  a  mother,  that  best  of  philosophers  in  practical 
matters,  understands  every  one  of  her  children  and  the 
special  differences  between  them  all ;  and  does  she  not 
carry  herself  with  true  intuition  as  to  their  daily  needs, 
and  with  the  interpreting  philosophy  of  sensitive  love  ? 
She  is  the  best  trainer  of  men,  and  has  the  best  mental 
philosophy,  so  far  as  practical  tilings  are  concerned. 

There  is  but  one  other  point.  While  you  study  men 
scientifically,  in  regard  to  the  fundamental  elements 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAX  NATURE.  99 

of  human  nature,  and  again  by  sympathies  and  kindly 
relations  to  individuals  to  learn  them  well,  you  must 
be  much  among  them,  generally.  You  must  act  with 
men.  Learn  to  be  needful  to  them  and  to  use  them. 
A  minister  who  stays  in  his  study  all  the  week  long, 
and  makes  his  appearance  only  in  his  pulpit  to  preach, 
may  do  some  good,  of  a  certain  sort ;  but  the  preacher 
must  be  a  man  among  men.  Keep  out  among  the 
people.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  you  ought  to  make 
a  great  many  pastoral  visits,  but  that  society  —  men, 
women,  and  children,  of  all  sorts  —  ought  to  be  your 
continual  and  familiar  acquaintances.  Books  alone 
are  not  enough.  Studying  is  not  enough.  There  is  a 
training  for  you  in  the  actual  daily  contact  with  men, 
of  mind  with  mind,  which  will  keep  you  down,  and 
you  will  not  have  so  much  professional  pride.  You 
will  find  many  men  abler  than  you,  and  a  good  many 
men  who  are  better  qualified  to  teach  grace  to  you 
than  you  are  to  teach  them.  You  will  often  find  how 
very  superficial  has  been  your  teaching  to  men.  No 
man  will  find  a  better  study  than  where  the  drooping 
heart  is  laid  bare  to  him,  or  where  the  ever-flashing 
intelligence  is  acting  in  his  presence.  There  you  can 
see  what  your  work  has  been,  and  what  it  is  to  be  in 
the'  future. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  Can  a  minister  be  eminent  both  as  a  pastor  and  as  a 
preacher  ? 

ME.  BEECHER.  —  Yes.  It  will  depend,  however,  upon 
how  large  his  pastorate  is,  and  how  much  he  undertakes 
to  do.  A  man  may  not  be  able  to  take  a  large  care  of 


100          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

individual  souls,  and  yet  study  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
able  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a  city  pulpit,  or  any  labor 
of  that  kind  which  requires  exceeding  freshness  and 
newness ;  he  must  make  an  average.  He  must  keep  up 
his  pulpit,  but  at  the  same  time  he  must  keep  up  his 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  if  he  can  have  no 
substitute  or  assistant  he  must  do  pastoral  work.  I  do 
very  little  of  it  myself,  but  have  many  assistants,  and 
the  work  is  done. 

Q.  Has  not  science  demonstrated  that  phrenology  is  imper- 
fect? 

MR.  BEECHER. —  I  do  not  know  that  science  has 
demonstrated  it.  Those  who  are  best  acquainted  with 
it  are  conscious  that  with  some  crudenesses  it  contains  a 
great  many  elements  of  truth,  and  that  it  is  one  of  the 
tendencies  in  the  right  direction ;  and  when  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  human  mind  shall  be  finally  made  clear,  I 
think  it  will  be  found  that  much  has  been  owing  to 
phrenology. 

Q.  Would  you  recommend  the  study  of  Hebrew  as  part  of  a 
theological  course  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  There  are  a  great  many  who  are 
naturally  called  to  scholarship,  and  who  should  educate 
themselves  with  a  view  to  contribute  to  the  learning 
of  the  day.  A  man  who  has  that  turn  of  mind  is  wise 
to  study  Hebrew.  Some  study  of  it  is  beneficial  in 
other  respects.  I  do  not  think  that  the  amount  of 
study  required  in  our  theological  seminaries  will  hurt 
anybody.  You  need  not  scoff  at  any  part  of  the  study 
as  if  it  were  a  surplusage.  There  is  nothing  that  is 
taught  here  that  you  will  not  thank  God  for  in  the 


THE   STUDY   OF   HUMAN   NATURE.  101 

course  of  your  life.     You  can  save  yourselves  a  vast 
amount  of  trouble  hereafter  by  faithful  study  now. 

Q.  How  much  time  ought  a  minister  to  spend  in  examining  his 
text  in  the  original  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Well,  just  as  much  as  is  necessary 
to  get  the  real  spirit  of  the  text,  and  that  will  depend 
upon  yourself.  If  I  should  conclude  to  study  my  text 
from  the  Old  Testament,  in  Hebrew,  I  think  it  would 
take  me  most  of  the  week  to  ascertain  what  it  was  !  I 
get  along  better  with  the  Xew  Testament. 

QUESTION  BY  DR.  BACON.  —  How  far  should  a  preacher  imitate 
the  example  of  Christ,  and  give  utterance  to  truths  which  are 
disagreeable  to  the  hearer  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  No  rule  whatever  can  be  given  in 
regard  to  that.  "Whatever  provocation  arises  from  the 
preacher's  manner  or  untowardness,  of  course,  is  blame- 
worthy in  him.  If  he  will  speak  truths  meet  for 
persons  to  hear,  let  him  learn  "  speaking  the  truth  in 
love."  •  Instruct  in  meekness  those  who  oppose  you,  for 
peradventure  God  shall  give  them  repentance.  And 
if  you  are  speaking  the  truth,  it  is  essential  that  those 
who  hear  you  believe  you  are  sincere  before  you  can 
work  with  them. 

But  manner  is  much.  In  the  early  abolition  days 
two  men  went  out  preaching,  one  an  old  Quaker,  and 
another  a  young  man  full  of  fire.  When  the  Quaker 
lectured,  everything  ran  along  very  smoothly,  and  he 
earned  the  audience  with  him.  When  the  young  man 
lectured,  there  was  a  row,  and  stones,  and  eggs.  It 
became  so  noticeable  that  the  young  man  spoke  to  the 
Quaker  about  it.  He  said,  "  Friend,  you  and  I  are  on 


102          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

the  same  mission,  "and  preach  the  same  things ;  and 
how  is  it  that  while  you  are  received  cordially  I  get 
nothing  but  abuse  ? "  The  Quaker  replied,  "  I  will  tell 
thee.  Thee  says,  '  If  you  do  so  and  so,  you  shall  be 
punished,'  and  I  say,  '  My  friends,  if  you  will  not  do  so 
and  so,  you  shall  not  be  punished.' "  They  both  said 
the  same  things,  but  there  was  a  great  deal  of  differ- 
ence in  the  way  they  said  it. 

Q.  Is  it  not  true  that  Spurgeon  is  a  follower  of  Calvin  ?  and  is 
he  not  an  eminent  example  of  success  ?  ' 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  In  spite  of  it,  yes ;  but  I  do  not 
know  that  the  camel  travels  any  better,  or  is  any  more 
useful  as  an  animal,  for  the  hump  on  its  back. 

Q.  May  not  a  man  be  too  self-conscious  in  his  preaching  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Yes,  but  every  preacher  must  watch 
his  own  tendencies,  and  labor  to  counteract  the  excess 
of  them.  In  astronomy,  they  have  always  to  make  an 
equation  of  corrections.  Every  man  has  his  own  equa- 
tion. The  different  nervous  activities  of  men  make  a 
difference  in  the  observations  of  different  astronomers. 
Every  great  astronomer  has  his  own  personal  equation, 
which  is  generally  known.  That  must  be  calculated 
for,  in  using  his  observations.  So,  every  minister  ought 
to  have  his  personal  equation,  and  he  ought  to  use  it 
himself  all  the  time.  One  man  says,  "  I  am  inclined 
by  nature  to  take  the  cautious  and  the  fearful  view." 
Now,  he  must  take  pains  to  look  on  the  hopeful 
side  of  everything !  Another  man  says,  "  I  am  in- 
clined to  benevolent  views,"  and  he  must  strive  to 
bring  out  the  conscience  element.  You  see  the  appli- 
cation. 


THE  STUDY  OF  HUMAN  NATURE.        103 

Q.  What  proportion  of  the  study  of  human  nature  ought  to  be 
found  in  books,  novels,  etc,  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  You  can  give  no  proportion,  as 
you  can  in  a  physician's  prescription,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  men  learn  with  different  facilities.  Some 
men  will  learn  more  in  six  months  from  free  intercourse 
with  people  than  other  men  will  learn  in  six  years. 
There  is  nothing  in  this  world  that  will  take  away  from 
a  man  the  responsibility  of  finding  out  things  for  him- 
self. The  principle  being  given,  you  must  find  out 
what  you  yourself  need  in  the  different  methods  of 
working  and  the  proportions  of  them. 


V. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS. 

February  14,  1872. 

is  somewhat  difficult  to  reduce  to  anything 
like  precision  many  of  the  directions  which 
I  shall  attempt  to  give  you,  young  gentle- 
men, because  your  course  will  be  determined 

so  much  by  circumstances,  that  what  might  be  true  at 

one  time  would  not  be  true  at  another. 

CIRCUMSTANCES  ALTER  CASES. 

For  instance,  in  regard  to  preaching,  the  field  into 
which  you  go  will  have  very  much  to  do  with  it,  both 
as  to  its  manner  and  the  preparation  you  will  make 
for  it.  A  man  set  in  an  uncultivated  field  in  the  far 
West,  among  the  rude  pioneers,  would,  both  inwardly 
and  outwardly,  use  a  different  method  from  that  which 
he  would  employ  in  an  old  and  cultivated  community, 
where  the  church  had  been  organized  for  a  long  time, 
and  where  the  men  and  women  had  been  well  instructed 
—  drilled,  indeed  —  in  casuistical  and  doctrinal  theol- 
ogy, its  principles  and  truths.  You  would  not  think 
of  preaching  elaborate  sermons  in  doctrinal  sequence, 
going  among  people  who  had  been  utterly  unused  to 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.         105 

any  such  course  as  this.  In  a  new  community  good 
sense  would  teach  you  at  once,  and  if  it  did  not,  neces- 
sity would  very  quickly  teach  you,  that  you  could  not 
preach  as  you  would  in  the  old  pulpit.  My  early  min- 
istry was  spent  in  the  West,  and  I  had  the  opportunity 
of  seeing,  time  and  again,  ministers  from  parishes  in 
the  East,  coming  out  into  the  scattered  populations  of 
the  West,  made  up  from  every  quarter  of  the  world ; 
and  it  was  an  edifying  spectacle  to  see  the  amazement, 
the  gradual  awakening,  the  chagrin,  the  confusion,  the 
embarrassment,  the  glimpse  of  hope,  the  putting  out 
of  the  new  method,  the  readaptation,  and,  finally, 
the  successful  issue  of  these  new  ministers  into  their 
new  work ;  for  they  had  to  be  acclimated,  not  in  body 
alone,  but  in  preaching  as  well.  So,  I  say  that  what 
would  help  you  on  the  supposition  that  you  were  to 
settle  in  the  East  might  be  of  very  little  importance 
to  you  if  you  were  going  to  settle  West,  in  Montana, 
for  instance,  or  in  Texas,  at  the  South. 

WRITING   AND   EXTEMPORIZING. 

Then,  again,  different  personal  temperaments  and 
habits  may  have  very  much  to  do  with  your  mode  of 
preaching ;  and  the  ever-open  question  comes  up, "  Shall 
I  write  my  sermons,  or  shall  I  extemporize  ? "  That 
depends,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  upon  a  man's 
temperament.  If  he  be  extremely  sensitive  and  fas- 
tidious by  nature,  and,  withal,  somewhat  secretive  and 
cautious,  it  would  frequently  be  almost  impossible  for 
him  to  extemporize  with  fluency.  Sometimes  men  are 
so  oppressed  under  the  influence  of  an  audience  that 
they  cannot  possibly  think  in  its  presence.  Drill  and 

5* 


106          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

long  habit  may  alter  this ;  but  still,  if  it  is  rooted  in  a 
man's  nature,  he  may  never  conquer  it.  And  after  all, 
the  real  thing  for  him  to  do  is  to  preach,  and  whether 
he  write  his  sermon  or  speak  it  without  writing,  let  him 
see  that  he  trains  himself  to  do  his  work.  This  ques- 
tion is  the  same  as  asking,  "  Is  it  best  for  a  man  who 
is  going  hunting  to  take  out  cartridge-shells  already 
loaded  tfor  his  gun,  or  shall  he  take  loose  ammunition 
and  load  with  powder  and  shot,  according  to  circumstan- 
ces, every  time  he  is  going  to  shoot  ? "  Now  that  is  a 
fair  question,  and  there  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  on  the 
subject.  But,  after  all,  the  man  who  goes  where  the 
game  is,  always  finding  it  and  bringing  it  home  with 
him,  is  the  best  hunter ;  and  I  care  not  whether  he  carry 
fixed  or  loose  ammunition.  That  is  the  best  cat  that 
catches  the  most  rats.  And  in  your  case  that  will  be 
the  best  form  of  sermon  that  does  the  work  of  a  ser- 
mon the  best.  If  you  can  do  best  by  writing,  write  your 
sermons ;  and  if  you  can  do  better  by  not  writing,  do 
not  write  them. 

This  merely  by  way  of  illustrating  the  difficulty 
there  is  in  giving  specific  directions  in  matters  of 
preaching. 

VARIATIONS   OF  DENOMINATIONAL   SERVICE. 

There  is  another  modifying  circumstance  that  comes 
in,  and  that  is  the  church  economy  through  which 
you  undertake  to  administer. 

You  go  out  into  a  community,  and  find  it  already 
organized.  Some  of  you  will  very  possibly  officiate  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  while  others  of  you  will  find 
yourselves  in  the  Methodist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  or 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.       107 

Congregational  churches,  and  some  even,  perhaps,  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

Now  you  may  ask,  What  difference  does  the  church 
make  ?  Is  not  man  the  same,  no  matter  what  church 
he  is  in  ?  But  really  there  are  two  great  churches : 
those  who  believe  that  God  works  by  the  power  of  the 
truth,  and  according  to  the  great  natural  laws ;  and 
those  who  believe,  in  addition  to  this,  that  he  works 
through  a  church  organization  of  a  definite  character, 
which  has  in  it  certain  specified  and  ordained  channels. 
And,  in  point  of  fact,  in  proportion  as  churches  or  par- 
ishes are  organized  according  to  this  last  belief  will  the 
amount  of  preaching  be  less.  There  is  less  of  it  for 
the  obvious  reason  that  the  church  economy  requires  so 
much  time  and  labor  in  other  directions.  You  have  to 
keep  going  the  great  organism  in  which  grace  inheres, 
and  you  worship  by  means  of  certain  forms,  ordinances, 
sacraments,  and  persons,  all  of  whom  are,  in  a  sense, 
sacred;  and  you  are  obliged  to  give  a  great  deal  of 
your  attention  and  care  to  the  administration  of  that 
economy. 

You  will  find  in  the  Episcopal  Church  —  and  I  do 
not  say  whether  it  is  best  or  not  —  that  the  average 
duration  of  the  sermon  is  twenty  or  twenty-five  min- 
utes, the  service  occupying  an  hour  and  a  half  or  two 
hours,  not  one  eighth  of  which  is  occupied  in  preach- 
ing. They  depend  upon  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
upon  their  musical  services,  and  upon  their  forms  of 
prayer,  the  sermon  being  but  a  minor  thing  among 
many  considered  more  important.  On  the  other  hand, 
churches  like  the  Presbyterian,  the  Baptist,  and  the 
Congregational  have  no  liturgy,  and  no  elaborate  church 


108          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

service ;  they  are  obliged  to  emphasize  that  which  they 
have,  and  the  sermon  becomes  the  chief  thing  in  such 
denominations.  That  is  the  power  they  hold  in  their 
hand,  and  if  they  cannot  wield  that  they  can  wield 
nothing ;  for  besides  that  there  is  very  little,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  that  is  effectual  in  the  work  of  their  ministry, 
—  and  that  is  the  weak  spot  in  our  scheme. 

Although  there  is  a  great  deal  of  preaching  in  the 
Methodist  Church  (as  developed  under  "VVesleyan  teach- 
ings), yet  you  will  take  notice  that  that  is  not  all. 
While  they  preach  a  great  deal,  and  put  an  emphasis 
upon  it,  yet,  after  all,  they  expect  the  main  work  to  be 
done  otherwise.  When  the  preaching  is  over,  they 
have  a  rousing  good  time  in  the  social  meeting,  singing 
and  praying,  and  then  it  is  expected  that  men  will  be 
caught  and  brought  into  the  church. 

You  will  find  that  generally,  in  New  England,  they 
have  run  to  preaching.  Why?  Because  they  had 
nothing  else  to  run  to.  The  pulpit  was  made  every- 
thing of,  and  the  whole  economy  of  the  church  was 
barren  outside  of  that.  There  was  very  little  of  sing- 
ing, and  what  there  was  did  not  always  minister  to 
grace.  The  praying  was  sometimes  most  helpful,  and 
sometimes  not  so  much  so ;  but  after  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures  (and  that,  in  my  childhood,  was  not  very 
much  indulged  in  in  parish  churches),  the  main  thing 
was  preaching. 

Now,  if  one  goes  into  a  community  where  the  ser- 
mon is  everything,  and  other  things  are  almost  nothing, 
of  course  his  preaching  will  be  very  different  from  what 
it  would  be  were  he  to  go  into  an  Episcopal  or  a  Meth- 
odist Church,  where  there  is  a  large  economy  besides 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          109 

preaching,  on  which  the  minister  depends  for  success  in 
his  labors.  Again,  you  may  have  to  build  up  a  com- 
munity. Or  you  may  have  to  arouse  them,  —  to  loosen 
up  the  earth',  and,  as  it  were,  take  soil  there,  where  the 
ground  has  been  ploughed  and  worn  out  and  abandoned, 
like  old  Virginia's  soil.  Or  you  may  have  to  take  new 
prairie  soil  and  break  it  up  yourself.  All  these  things 
will  determine  your  style  of  preaching.  So,  then,  when 
you  go  away  from  here  into  your  field  of  labor,  you  will 
find  that  it  is  only  very  little  of  what  you  have  heard 
in  the  seminary  that  you  can  immediately  apply.  You 
must  do  things  according  to  some  principle  of  common- 
sense,  aside  from  what  you  may  have  learned  here.  All 
these  lessons  that  you  are  being  taught  in  the  seminary 
are  of  a  great  deal  more  importance  to  you  than  you 
believe  now.  You  will  think  better  of  your  theological 
training  twenty  years  hence  than  to-day,  perhaps.  But, 
after  all,  mother-wit  and  a  patient  finding  out  of  your 
road  from  day  to  day  are  going  to  teach  you  in  the  last 
instance,  and  they  will  be  your  best  teachers. 

THE   POWER   OF   IMAGINATION. 

Yet,  despite  all  these  necessary  differences,  there  are 
certain  important  elements  that  enter  into  all  ministries. 
And  the  first  element  on  which  your  preaching  will 
largely  depend  for  power  and  success,  you  will  perhaps 
be  surprised  to  learn,  is  Imagination,  which  I  regard 
as  the  most  important  of  all  the  elements  that  go  to 
make  the  preacher.  But  you  must  not  understand  me 
to  mean  the  imagination  as  the  creator  of  fiction,  and 
still  less  as  the  factor  of  embellishment.  The  imagina- 
tion in  its  relations  to  art  and  beauty  is  one  tiling ;  and 


110          LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 

in  its  relations  to  moral  truth  it  is  another  thing,  of 
the  most  substantial  character.  Imagination  of  this 
kind  is  the  true  germ  of  faith ;  it  is  the  power  of  con- 
ceiving as  definite  the  things  which  are  invisible  to 
the  senses.,  —  of  giving  them  distinct  shape.  And 
this,  not  merely  in  your  own  thoughts,  but  with  the 
power  of  presenting  the  things  which  experience  cannot 
primarily  teach  to  other  people's  minds,  so  that  they 
shall  be  just  as  obvious  as  though  seen  with  the  bodily 
eye. 

Imagination  of  this  kind  is  a  most  vital  element  in 
preaching.  If  we  presented  to  people  things  we  had 
seen,  we  should  have  all  their  bodily  organism  in  our 
favor.  My  impression  is,  that  the  fountain  of  strength 
in  every  Christian  ministry  is  the  power  of  the  minister 
himself  to  realize  God  present,  and  to  present  him  to 
the  people.  No  ministry  can  be  long,  various,  rich,  and 
fruitful,  I  think,  except  from  that  root.  We  hear  a 
great  deal  about  the  breadth  of  the  pulpit,  and  about 
the  variety  of  the  pulpit,  and  about  carrying  the  truth 
home  to  men's  hearts.  I  have  said  a  great  deal  to  you 
about  it,  and  shall  say  more.  I  claim  that  the  pulpit 
has  a  right  and  a  duty  to  discuss  social  questions,  — 
moral  questions  in  politics,  slavery,  war,  peace,  and  the 
intercourse  of  nations.  It  has  a  right  to  discuss  com- 
merce, industry,  political  economy ;  everything  from  the 
roof-tree  to  the  foundation-stone  of  the  household,  and 
everything  that  is  of  interest  in  the  State.  You  have 
a  duty  to  speak  of  all  these  things.  There  is  not  so 
broad  a  platform  in  the  world  as  the  Christian  pulpit, 
nor  an  air  so  free  as  the  heavenly  air  that  overhangs  it. 
You  have  a  right  and  a  duty  to  preach  on  all  these 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.         Ill 

things ;  but  if  you  make  your  ministry  to  stand  on  them, 
it  will  be  barren.  It  will  be  rather  a  lectureship  than 
a  Christian  ministry.  It  will  be  secular  and  will  be- 
come secularized.  The  real  root  and  secret  of  power, 
after  all,  in  the  pulpit,  is  the  preaching  of  the  invisi- 
ble God  to  the  people  as  an  ever-present  God.  The 
preacher,  then,  must  have  the  greatness  of  the  God- 
power  in  his  soul;  and  when  he  is  himself  inspired 
with  it,  —  and  filled  with  it  so  familiarly  that  always 
and  everywhere  it  is  the  influence  under  which  he 
looks  out  at  man,  at  pleasure,  at  honor,  and  at  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  human  life,  —  still  standing  under  the 
shadow  of  God's  presence,  he  has  the  power  of  God 
with  man  when  he  comes  to  speak  of  the  truths  of  the 
gospel  as  affecting  human  procedure.  This  power  of 
conceiving  of  invisible  things  does  not  only  precede 
in  point  of  time,  but  it  underlies,  and  is  dynamically 
superior  to,  anything  else. 

Now,  imagination  is  indispensable  to  the  formation 
of  any  clear  and  distinct  ideas  of  God  the  Father,  the 
Son,  or  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  myself,  I  am  compelled 
to  say  that  I  must  form  an  ideal  of  God  through  his 
Son,  Jesus  Christ.  Christ  is  indispensable  to  me.  My 
nature  needs  to  fashion  the  thought  of  God,  though  I 
know  him  to  be  a  Spirit,  into  something  that  shall 
nearly  or  remotely  represent  that  which  I  know.  I 
hold  before  my  mind  a  glorified  form,  therefore ;  but, 
after  all  the  glory,  whatever  may  be  the  nimbus  and 
the  effluence  around  about  it,  it  is  to  me  the  form  of  a 
glorified  man.  And  I  therefore  fashion  to  myself,  out 
of  the  spirit,  that  which  has  to  me,  as  it  were,  a  Divine 
presence  and  a  Divine  being,  namely,  a  Divine  man. 


112  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

But  now  come  the  attributal  elements,  the  fashion- 
ing of  the  disposition,  and  not  only  that,  but  a  fashion- 
ing of  the  whole  interior.  I  bring  to  you  some  day 
the  face,  in  miniature,  of  one  very  beautiful.  You 
look  upon  it,  and  say,  "  Who  is  that  ? "  I  describe  the 
person  and  give  you  the  name.  You  say,  "It  is  a 
beautiful  face."  But  you  do  not,  after  looking  at  it, 
feel  that  you  are  acquainted  with  the  person.  Now  I 
will  take  you  home  with  me  and  introduce  you  to  the 
friend  whose  name  belongs  to  this  picture;  but  still 
you  would  not  feel  that  you  knew  her.  You  salute 
her  morning  and  evening,  converse  with  her,  and  take 
part  in  the  social  festivities.  You  admire  her  tact,  her 
delicacy,  and  her  beauty.  You  say  the  acquaintance 
opens  well.  She  seems  to  you  very  lady-like  and  at- 
tractive. On  the  Sabbath  day  the  Bible-class  assembles, 
and  you  go  there  with  your  friend.  In  the  recitations 
and  the  low-toned  conversations  she  shows  great  knowl- 
edge and  moral  feeling,  a  bright  intellect,  and  marvel- 
lous discrimination.  But,  still,  you  do  not  feel  that  you 
know  her.  Then  you  fall  sick,  and  experience  that 
delicious  interval  just  after  a  severe  illness,  which  one 
sometimes  has,  —  the  coming  dawn  after  a  long  night, 
heralding  the  morning  of  returning  health.  In  that 
time  the  hours  are  to  be  filled  up,  and  she  becomes  a 
ministering  angel  unto  you.  She  is  full  of  resources 
for  your  comfort.  You  notice  the  wisdom  of  her 
management,  the  power  she  has  to  stimulate  thought, 
to  play  with  the  imagination,  and  to  cheer  the  heart. 
I  am  not  now  speaking  of  one  to  whom  you  are  to  be 
affianced.  It  is  not  for  you ;  only  you  are  making  the 
acquaintance  of  one  whose  portrait  you  had  seen,  but 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          113 

nothing  more.  And  by  thus  living  in  communion  with 
you,  she  has  affected  you,  little  by  little,  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  has  been  brought  home  to  you ;  and  you 
say,  "  I  have  found  a  friend  ! "  Well,  who  was  she  ? 
Did  you  know  her  when  you  first  saw  her  portrait  ? 

Do  you  know  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  when  you 
merely  see  his  portrait,  as  it  were,  in  the  Evangelists  ? 
Do  you  know  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  when  you  simply 
range  through  his  words  of  wisdom,  and  take  them, 
germ-words  as  they  are,  with  all  the  fullness  that  you 
can  ?  No,  not  until  you  have  been  intimate  with  him, 
and  have  had  your  hearts  lifted  up  in  their  noblest 
elements  into  that  serener  air  through  which  God  only 
communicates.  It  is  not  until  you  have  been  in  this 
atmosphere,  not  only  on  the  Lord's  day,  but  on  the  in- 
tervening days.  It  is  not  until,  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  you 
have  been  made  sensitive  in  every  part,  and  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  becomes  chief  among  ten  thousand  and 
altogether  lovely.  It  is  not  until  you  have  the  power 
to  transfuse  Jesus  Christ  into  your  whole  life  that  you 
know  him,  —  until  there  is  something  in  the  morning 
dawn  that  brings  you  the  thought  of  him,  in  the  hush 
of  the  evening,  at  noon-time,  in  the'  budding  and 
springing  of  the  trees,  in  the  singing  of  the  birds, 
when  you  sit  listless  on  the  grass  in  the  summer,  in 
the  retreats  of  man,  in  the  cities  and  towns,  with  the 
fertile  power  of  suggestion  and  association  by  which 
you  feel  that  the  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness 
thereof.  When  you  know  him  in  all  the  boundless 
domain  of  nature,  everything  speaks  to  you  of  your 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Just  so,  in  your  father's  house, 
every  room  speaks  to  you  of  your  mother  who  is  gone, 


114          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

—  every  stair  in  the  staircase,  every  sound  of  the  bell, 
every  tick  of  the  clock,  and  everything  under  the  roof, 
bring  back  to  you  her  memory.  It  is  not  until  Jesus 
Christ  fills  the  soul  full,  and  he  is  yours,  born  into  you, 
made  familiar,  rich,  and  various,  touching  something  in 
every  part  of  your  nature,  and  spreading  out  over  all 
the  things  around  about  you,  that  you  have  the  imagi- 
nation to  conceive  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  you 
have  a  living  conception  of  him,  which  you  can  teach 
and  present  to  others. 

But  this  imagination  is  required  still  more  vividly 
in  the  second  step,  namely,  the  power  to  throw  out  your 
conceptions  before  others,  and  such  a  preaching  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  shall  bring  him  home  to  your 
hearers.  How  will  you  undertake  to  do  this  ?  You 
will  have  little  children  to  deal  with.  You  will  have 
persons  of  great  practical  sense,  but-  of  very  little 
imagination,  if  any.  You  will  have  persons  of  a  way- 
ward, coarse  temperament,  and  again  others  of  a  fine, 
sensitive  nature.  You  will  have  those  who  take  moral 
impressions  with  extreme  facility,  and  who  understand 
analogies  and  illustrations ;  and  you  will  have  others 
who  understand  nothing  of  this  kind.  These  persons 
you  must  imbue  with  a  sense  of  Christ's  presence  with 
them.  This  is  the  prime  question  in  your  ministerial 
life,  —  how  to  bring  Jesus  Christ  home  to  men,  so  that 
he  shall  be  to  them  what  he  is  to  you.  You  may  pre- 
sent Christ  to  them  historically,  and  far  be  it  from  me 
to  say  that  you  must  not  put  great  emphasis  upon  the 
historical  study  of  Christ;  but  you  must  remember 
that  Christ,  as  he  was  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  in- 
terpreted by  the  letter,  is  not  a  living  Christ.  It  is  an 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING -ELEMENTS.         115 

historical  picture,  "but  it  is  not  a  live  Christ.  Thence 
must  you  get  your  materials,  out  of  which  to  make  the 
living  faith.  Many  a  minister  believes  that  after  he 
has  been  delivering  a  series  of  sermons  on  the  life  and 
times  of  Christ,  he  has  been  preaching  Christ.  He  has 
been  merely  preaching  about  him,  not  preaching  him. 
There  is  many  a  minister  who  has  been  preaching  the 
philosophy  of  Christ ;  that  is,  a  view  of  Christ  in  which, 
with  infinite  refinements  and  cultured  arguments,  he 
makes  him  one  of  the  persons  in  the  Trinity,  —  who  is 
jealous  for  his  service,  jealous  for  his  honor,  exactly 
discriminating  where  the  line  of  infinity  comes  down 
and  touches  the  line  of  finity,  and  pugnacious  all  along 
that  line,  —  and  then  thinks  that  he  has  been  preaching 
Christ.  Some  ministers  think  that  they  have  been 
preaching  Christ  when  they  have  been  discoursing 
about  the  relations  of  Christ  to  the  law,  the  nature  of 
his  sufferings,  how  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
suffer,  what  the  effect  of  his  suffering  was  upon  the 
universe,  and  what  was  the  nature  of  the  effect  of  his 
suffering  upon  Divine  law,  and  on  the  Divine  sense  of 
justice.  They  work  out  of  the  life  and  times  of  Christ, 
and  out  of  his  sufferings  and  death,  a  theory  of  Atone- 
ment, or,  as  it  is  called,  a  "  Plan  of  Salvation,"  and 
present  that  to  men,  and  then  they  think  they  have 
presented  Christ. 

Now  I  am  not  saying  that  you  should  not  discuss 
such  themes,  but  only  that  you  should  not  suppose 
in  so  doing  you  have  been  preaching  Christ.  You 
cannot  do  it  in  that  way.  To  preach  Christ  is  to  make 
such  a  presentation  of  him  as  shall  fill  those  who  hear 
you.  They  must  be  made  to  conceive  it  in  themselves, 


116          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  he  must  be  to  them  a  live  Saviour,  as  lie  is  to  you. 
One  of  the  noblest  expressions  of  Paul  is  where  he 
exclaims,  "  Christ  who  died,  yea,  rather,  who  liveth"  as 
if  he  bounded  back  from  the  thought  of  speaking  about 
Christ  as  dead.  He  is  one  who  liveth  again  and 
reign eth  in  the  heavens  over  all  the  earth. 

There  is  danger  of  a  mistake  being  made  here.  You 
might  ask  me  if  you  ought  not  to  preach  atonement. 
Yes.  Ought  you  not,  also,  to  preach  the  nature,  suffer- 
ings, and  death  of  Christ  ?  Yes,  provided  you  will  not 
suppose  you  understand  more  than  you  really  do  on 
these  subjects.  There  is  much  in  that  direction  that 
may  contribute  to  instruction ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
what  you  need,  what  I  need,  and  what  the  community 
needs,  is  that,  in  a  world  full  of  penalty,  where  aches, 
pains,  tears,  sighs,  and  groans  bear  witness  to  Divine 
justice,  —  where,  from  the  beginning,  groanings  and  tra- 
vailings  have  testified  that  God  is  an  avenger,  —  there 
shall  be  brought  out  from  this  discouraging  background 
the  truth  of  the  gospel,  that  God  loves  mankind,  and 
would  not  that  they  die.  He  is  the  God  that  shall  wipe 
away  the  tears  from  every  eye.  He  is  the  God  that 
shall  put  out  with  the  brightness  of  his  face  the  light 
of  the  sun  and  of  the  moon.  He  shall  put  his  arm 
around  about  men,  and  comfort  them  as  a  mother 
her  child.  That  is  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 
With  this  we  would  stimulate  men  when  they  are 
sluggish,  would  develop  their  better  natures,  give 
them  hope  in  a  future  life,  cheer  them  onward  in  the 
path  of  duty,  and  give  them  confidence  in  immortality 
and  eternity ;  for  in  God  we  live  and  move,  and  have 
our  being. 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          117 

The  imagination,  then,  is  that  power  of  the  mind  by 
which  it  conceives  of  invisible  things,  and  is  able  to 
present  them  as  though  they  were  visible  to  others. 
That  is  one  of  its  most  transcendent  offices.  It  is  the 
quality  which  of  necessity  must  belong  to  the  ministry. 
The  functions  of  the  preacher  require  it.  In  godly 
families  it  was,  formerly,  the  habit  to  discourage  the 
imagination,  or  to  use  it  only  occasionally.  They  mis- 
conceived its  glorious  functions.  It  is,  I  repeat,  the 
very  marrow  of  faith,  or  that  power  by  which  we  see 
the  invisible  and  make  others  see  it.  It  is  the  power 
to  bring  from  the  depths  the  things  that  are  hidden 
from  the  bodily  eye.  A  ministry  enriched  by  this  noble 
faculty  will  not  and  cannot  wear  out,  and  the  preacher's 
people  will  never  be  tired  of  listening  to  him.  Did 
you  ever  hear  anybody  say  that  spring  has  been  worn 
out  ?  It  has  been  coming  for  thousands  of  years,  and 
it  is  just  as  sweet,  just  as  welcome,  and  just  as  new,  as 
if  the  birds  sang  for  the  first  time ;  and  so  it  will  be 
for  a  thousand  years  to  come.  These  great  processes 
of  nature  that  are  continually  recurring  cannot  weary 
us.  But  discussions  of  the  systems  of  theology  will. 
Men  get  accustomed  to  repetitions  of  the  same  thoughts ; 
but  there  is  something  in  the  love  of  God  and  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  the  application  of  these  things  to  the 
human  soul,  that  will  give  an  ever- varying  freshness  to 
a  ministry  which  occupies  itself  with  the  contemplation 
and  teaching  of  this  law  of  love,  and  applying  the 
knowledge  to  all  the  varying  wants  and  shifting  phases 
of  the  congregation.  Even  though  you  are  forty  years 
in  one  parish,  you  will  never  have  finished  your  preach- 
ing, and  you  will  not  tire  your  people. 


118  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING.    ' 

EMOTION. 

The  next  element  that  I  shall  mention  is  the  power 
of  Feeling.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  natural  emotion 
in  New-Englanders,  but  much  of  it  is  suppressed.  It 
is  not  the  habit  of  people  in  our  Eastern  States  to 
show  feeling  nearly  as  much,  as  in  the  South,  nor  as 
much  as  in  the  West.  The  New  Testament,  however, 
is  Oriental,  and  the  Orientals  always  had,  and  showed, 
a  great  deal  of  emotion.  The  style  of  the  Apostles' 
procedure  shows  that  they  had  a  great  deal  of  fervency, 
which  is  only  another  term  for  emotional  outplay. 

If  a  man  undertake  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  his 
congregation  purely  by  the  power  of  feeling,  without 
adequate  force  in  the  intellect,  there  are  valid  objec- 
tions to  that;  but  every  man  who  means  to  be  in 
affinity  with  his  congregation  must  have  feeling.  It 
cannot  be  helped.  A  minister  without  feeling  is  no 
better  than  a  book.  You  might  just  as  well  put  a 
book,  printed  in  large  type,  on  the  desk  where  all  could 
read  it,  and  have  a  man  turn  over  the  leaves  as  you 
read,  as  to  have  a  man  stand  up,  and  clearly  and  coldly 
recite  the  precise  truth  through  which  he  has  gone  by 
a  logical  course  of  reasoning.  It  has  to  melt  some- 
where. Somewhere  there  must  be  that  power  by  which 
the  man  speaking  and  the  men  hearing  are  unified ; 
and  that  is  the  power  of  emotion. 

It  will  vary  indefinitely  in  different  persons.  Some 
will  have  much  emotion,  and  some  but  very  little.  It 
is  a  thing  to  be  striven  for.  Where  there  is  relatively 
a  deficiency,  men  can  educate  themselves  and  acquire 
this  power. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          119 

Now  one  of  the  great  hindrances  to  the  exhibition 
of  true  Christian  feeling  in  the  pulpit  is  that  which  I 
hear  called  the  "  dignity  of  the  pulpit."  Men  have 
been  afraid  to  lay  that  aside,  and  bring  themselves 
under  the  conditions  necessary  for  the  display  of  emo- 
tion. Now  and  then  they  will  have  a  sublime,  religious 
tone  of  feeling  at  a  revival.  But,  after  all,  there  is  a 
vast  amount  of  feeling  playing  in  every  man's  mind, 
which  is  a  very  able  element  in  preaching.  It  may  be 
intense,  earnest,  pathetic,  or  cheerful,  mirthful,  and 
gratifying,  and  is  the  result  of  love  to  God  and  God's 
creatures.  If  a  man  desires  to  preach  with  power,  he 
must  have  this  element  coming  and  going  between  him 
and  his  hearers ;  he  must  believe  what  he  is  saying,  and 
what  he  says  must  be  out  of  himself,  and  not  out  of  his 
manuscript  merely.  If  a  man  cannot  be  free  to  speak 
as  he  feels,  but  is  thinking  all  the  time  about  the 
sacredness  of  the  place,  it  will  shut  him  up.  He  will 
grow  critical  I  think  the  best  rule  for  a  man  in 
society  —  and  it  is  good  for  the  pulpit  too  —  is  to  have 
right  aims,  do  the  best  things  by  the  best  means  you 
can  find,  and  then  let  yourself  alone.  Do  not  be  a  spy 
on  yourself.  A  man  who  goes  down  the  street  thinking 
of  himself  all  the  time,  with  critical  analysis,  whether 
he  is  doing  this,  that,  or  the  other  thing,  —  turning 
himself  over  as  if  he  were  a  goose  on  a  spit  before  a 
fire,  and  basting  himself  with  good  resolutions,  —  is 
simply  belittling  himself.  This  course  is  bad  also  in 
the  closet. 

There  is  a  large  knowledge  of  one's  self  that  every 
man  should  have.  But  a  constant  study  of  one's  own 
morbid  anatomy  is  very  discouraging  and  harmful.  It 


120          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

is  the  power  of  being  free  and  independent  in  their 
opinions  that  men  want,  and  they  must  get  it  in  some 
way  or  other.  Having  right  aims,  be  manly ;  know  that 
you  mean  right,  that  you  will  do  right  by  the  right 
way ;  then  let  go,  and  do  not  be  thinking  of  yourself, 
if  you  can  help  it,  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  A  man 
must  go  into  the  pulpit  with  this  spirit.  Let  him 
know  what  he  wants,  and  let  him  be  able  to  say,  "  God 
knows  what  sends  me  here  to-day."  Let  his  heart  be 
right  with  God.  When  he  is  working  for  men  and 
among  them,  if  it  is  best  for  him  to  write,  let  him 
write ;  but  it  is  better,  for  the  most  successful  work, 
that  he  should  not  stand  up  and  recite  merely.  You 
know  what  you  can  do  only  when  the  sacred  fire  is 
upon  you.  You  have  no  time  then  for  analyzing  the 
effect  upon  yourself  in  any  minute  way. 

Many  men  go  into  the  pulpit  fresh  from  the  mirror, 
cravatted  and  in  perfect  toilet,  with  the  sanctity  of  the 
place  weighing  upon  them,  and  everything  complete  and 
proper.  They  know  if  there  is  the  slightest  aberration ; 
and  under  all  this  there  is  a  profound  self-conscious- 
ness. They  are  shocked  if  any  man,  in  such  a  place, 
does  that  which  creates  the  slightest  discord  with  their 
awful  solemnity,  or  breaks  the  sanctity  of  the  pulpit. 
Now,  according  to  my  own  principles,  when  a  man  is  a 
messenger  of  God,  and  knows  that  men  are  in  danger, 
and  believes  that  he  is  sent  to  rescue  them,  he  must  be 
lost  in  the  enthusiasm  of  that  work.  Do  you  suppose 
he  can  stop  his  feelings  from  being  manifested  by  any 
system  of  pulpit  routine?  If  he  is  naturally  correct 
and  makes  no  mistakes,  so  much  the  better,  for  I  do 
not  think  that  mistakes  are  desirable;  but  there  may 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.  121 

be  a  "  propriety  "  in  his  preaching  that  will  damn  half 
his  congregation,  or  there  may  occasionally  be  almost 
an  "  impropriety "  that  will  hurt  nobody,  and,  accom- 
panied with  the  right  manner,  will  save  multitudes  of 
men.  If  it  is  for  anything,  it  is  to  save  men  that  you 
are  going  into  the  ministry.  If  you  do  not  go  for  that, 
you  would  better  stay  out. 

Men  often  think  that  excitements  are  dangerous. 
Yes ;  everything  is  dangerous  in  this  world.  From  the 
time  that  a  man  is  born  into  the  world  until  he  leaves 
it,  it  is  always  possible  that  there  might  be  danger 
coupled  with  everything  he  does.  There  is  a  danger 
that  your  feeling  may  be  too  boisterous,  or  of  too  coarse 
a  nature,  or  that  it  will  not  be  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  congregation ;  all  these  things  are  to  be  taken  into 
consideration.  But  there  is  no  danger  from  excitement 
that  is  half  so  fearful  as  the  danger  of  not  feeling  and 
not  caring.  The  want  of  feeling  is  a  hundred  times 
more  dangerous  than  any  excitement  that  you  can  bring 
to  bear  upon  a  community. 

ENTHUSIASM. 

There  is  another  force  which  I  desire  to  speak  of,  and 
that  is  the  element  of  Enthusiasm.  This  is  not  feeling, 
because  pure  emotion  may  or  may  not  be  accompanied 
by  enthusiasm.  There  is  in  all  enthusiasm  a  certain 
outburst  and  glow.  You  may  have  enthusiasm  and 
feeling  ;  or,  it  may  be,  enthusiasm  and  imagination ;  or, 
it  may  be,  enthusiasm  and  reason.  In  almost  all  com- 
munities enthusiasm  stands  before  everything  else  in 
moving  popular  assemblies.  A  preacher  who  is  enthu- 
siastic in  everything  he  does,  in  all  that  he  believes, 

6 


122  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  in  all  the  movements  of  his  ministry,  will  generally 
carry  the  people  with  him.  He  may  do  this  without 
enthusiasm,  but  it  will  be  a  slow  process,  and  the  work 
will  be  much  more  laborious.  If  you  have  the  power 
of  speech  and  the  skill  of  presenting  the  truth,  and 
are  enthusiastic,  the  people  will  become  enthusiastic. 
People  will  take  your  views,  because  your  enthusiasm 
has  inoculated  them.  Very  often  you  will  see  a  man 
of  great  learning  go  into  a  community  and  accomplish 
nothing  at  all ;  and  a  whipster  will  go  after  him  with 
not  as  much  in  his  whole  body  as  his  predecessor  had 
in  his  little  finger,  yet  he  will  revolutionize  everything. 
You  may  say  that  a  community  aroused  by  enthu- 
siasm alone  will  just  as  quickly  relapse  into  their 
former  state.  Yes ;  but  I  do  not  counsel  enthusiasm 
alone.  The  mistake  is  in  permitting  any  such  relapse. 
It  is  the  same  as  though  you  ploughed  a  field  and  then 
left  it  for  the  rain  to  level  again.  You  must  not  only 
plough  it,  but  sow  seed,  harrow,  and  till  it.  Yet  it  is 
essential  that  the  field  should  be  ploughed.  So  it  is 
with  a  community.  Mere  enthusiasm  will  do  nothing 
permanent ;  but  its  work  must  be  followed  up  by  con- 
tinual and  fervent  preaching,  and  by  indoctrination  of 
the  truths  of  the  gospel.  I  repeat,  therefore,  that 
enthusiasm  is  an  indispensable  element  in  a  minister's 
work  among  men,  to  bring  them  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

FAITH. 

The  other  element  that  I  wish  to  discuss  is  Faith,  in 
the  sense  of  'belief.  I  do  not  mean  now  by  faith  what 
I  did  in  the  other  instance,  namely,  the  realization  of 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.  123 

the  invisible,  but  the  believing  spirit  which  you  must 
have,  —  the  conviction  of  what  you  teach.  A  man 
who  does  not  believe  what  he  is  preaching  will  very 
seldom  make  his  people  believe  it ;  and,  therefore,  I  say 
if  your  minds  are  much  in  doubt  in  respect  to  the 
grounds  or  the  great  truths  of  Christianity,  and  if  you 
are  thinking  about  that  all  the  time,  you  will  never  be 
preachers.  You  must  get  rid  of  that  feeling.  You  can 
get  over  it  by  bringing  yourselves  to  deal  with  the 
wants  of  men,  and  accustoming  yourselves  to  practical 
life.  There  is  no  study  like  mixing  with  men,  and 
helping  them.  There  is  nothing  that  will  make  you 
believe  in  God  so  much  as  trying  to  be  like  God  your- 
selves to  your  fellow-men,  nor  anything  that  will  bring 
Christ  so  near  to  you  as  trying  to  do  what  Christ  did, 
by  giving  up  your  will  for  your  people,  and  conforming 
yourself  to  their  dispositions,  and  presenting  to  them 
everything  you  have  realized  in  respect  to  the  great 
doctrines  of  Christianity.  I  do  not  understand  how 
men  can  preach  these  doctrines  who  are  occupied  all 
the  week  in  raising  questions  of  doubt.  There  is 
abroad  a  habit  of  mind  which  is  called  "  constructive 
criticism  "  by  philosophers,  which  is  now  prevalent  in 
Germany,  and  somewhat  so  in  England,  and  is  even 
throwing  its  shadow  upon  our  own  land,  and  exciting 
men's  minds.  A  man  under  that  influence  is,  as  it 
were,  congealed,  and  loses  his  electrical  power,  by  which 
only  a  man  preaches  with  any  effect.  There  was  some- 
thing almost  omnipotent  and  altogether  triumphant  in 
the  expression,  "  I  know  in  whom  I  believe."  A  man 
who  is  the  very  embodiment  of  conviction,  and  who 
pours  it  out  upon  people  so  that  they  can  see  it  and 


124          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

feel  it,  can  preach.  He  can  make  men  believe  things 
that  are  true,  and  even  those  that  are  not  true,  such  as 
that  ordinances  are  indispensable  which  are  not  indis- 
pensable. He  can  do  almost  everything  with  people, 
for  he  really  believes  his  own  doctrine.  See  Roman 
Catholic  priests  go  into  a  community,  —  and  there  are 
many  of  them  that  might  be  our  exemplars  in  piety 
and  self-denial,  —  and  with  that  intense  faith  and  zeal 
which  have  made  them  martyrs  among  savages,  see 
them  labor  among  the  people,  and  lead  them  into  the 
fold  of  the  Roman  Church.  That  is  largely  the  result 
of  the  Faith-power. 

If  you  are  going  to  preach,  do  not  take  things  about 
which  you  are  in  doubt  to  lay  before  your  people.  Do 
not  prove  things  too  much.  A  man  who  goes  into  his 
pulpit  every  Sunday  to  prove  things  gives  occasion  for 
people  to  say,  "  Well,  that  is  not  half  so  certain  as  I 
thought  it  was."  You  will,  by  this  course,  raise  up  a 
generation  of  chronic  doubters,  and  will  keep  them  so 
by  a  little  drilling  in  the  nice  refinement  of  doctrinal 
criticism.  You  can  drive  back  from  the  heart  the  great 
surges  of  faith  with  that  kind  of  specious  argument, 
and  even  the  true  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  men 
may  be  killed  in  your  congregation  by  such  doubting 
logic.  Do  not  employ  arguments  any  more  than  is 
necessary,  and  then  only  for  the  sake  of  answering 
objections  and  killing  the  enemies  of  the  truth.;  but  in 
so  far  as  truth  itself  is  concerned,  preach  it  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  men.  If  you  have  not  spoiled  your  peo- 
ple, you  have  them  on  your  side  already.  The  Word  of 
God  and  the  laws  of  truth  are  all  conformable  to  rea- 
son and  to  the  course  of  things  that  now  are;  and, 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          125 

certainly,  everything  that  is  required  in  a  Christian 
life  —  repentance  for  sin  and  turning  from  it,  the  taking 
hold  of  a  higher  manhood,  the  nobility  and  disinterest- 
edness of  man  —  goes  with  God's  Word  and  laws  natu- 
rally. Assume  your  position,  therefore ;  and  if  a  man 
says  to  you,  "  How  is  it  you  are  so  successful  while 
ueing  so  little  argument  ?  "  tell  him  that  is  the  very 
reason  of  your  success.  Take  things  for  granted,  and 
men  will  not  think  to  dispute  them,  but  will  admit 
them,  and  go  on  with  you  and  become  better  men  than 
if  they  had  been  treated  to  a  logical  process  of  argu- 
ment, which  aroused  in  them  an  argumentative  spirit 
of  doubt  and  opposition. 

Remember,  then,  Imagination,  Emotion,  Enthusiasm, 
and  Conviction  are  the  four  foundation-stones  of  an 
effective  and  successful  ministry. 

QUESTIONS  AND   ANSWERS. 

Q.  Suppose  a  man  does  not  have  the  enthusiasm  of  which  you 
have  spoken,  what  is  he  to  do  ? 

MR.  BEECIIER. —  Do  the  best  he  can,  and  stop.  I 
think  it  would  be  a  very  wholesome  thing  in  a  man's 
parish  life,  if  once  in  a  while,  upon  finding  that  he  was 
not  making  much  of  a  sermon,  he  should  frankly  con- 
fess it,  and  say,  "  Brethren,  we  will  sing." 

Q.  Suppose  a  man  tries  to  work  himself  up  to  a  feeling  of 
enthusiasm  by  action  and  increased  emphasis,  can  he  be  success- 
ful? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  In  regard  to  that,  I  will  mention  a 
circumstance  that  occurred  to  my  father.  I  recollect 
his  coming  home  in  Boston  one  Sunday,  when  I  was 


126          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

quite  a  small  boy,  saying  how  glad  he  was  to  get  home, 
away  from  the  church ;  and  he  added,  "  It  seems  to  me 
I  never  made  a  worse  sermon  than  I  did  this  morning." 
"  Why,  lather,"  said  I,  "  I  never  heard  you  preach  so 
loud  in  all  my  life."  "  That  is  the  way,"  said  he,  "  I 
always  holloa  when  I  have  n't  anything  to  say ! " 

But  how  far  a  man  may  assume  the  language  of 
feeling  —  and  he  may  sometimes,  in  order  to  its  pro- 
duction —  is  a  fair  question,  though  one  I  do  not  now 
wish  to  discuss.  There  is  some  difference  in  the  ques- 
tions put  by  gray  hairs  and  those  put  by  young  men,  I 
notice.  [The  questioner  was  an  elderly  man.]  I  am 
sure  of  one  thing,  and  that  is,  where  a  man  is  naturally 
cold  he  is  not  as  well  adapted  to  the  office  of  preaching 
as  an  enthusiastic  man.  I  would  say  to  such  a  man, 
"Put  yourself  in  that  situation  in  which  sympathy 
naturally  flows ;  then  provide  a  mold  for  it,  and  it  will 
fit  the  mould  first  or  last."  It  is  just  like  the  culti- 
vation of  right  feeling  in  any  direction.  One  of  my 
parishioners  will  say  to  me,  "I  have  no  benevolence, 
but  you  preach  that  I  ought  to  give,  —  what  shall  I 
do  ? "  I  say  to  him,  "  Give,  as  a  matter  of  duty,  until 
you  feel  a  pleasure  in  doing  it,  and  the  right  feeling 
will  come  of  itself."  So,  in  addressing  a  congregation, 
a  man  may  use  the  language  of  a  feeling  for  the  sake 
of  getting  and  propagating  the  feeling.  Indeed,  when 
it  comes  to  preaching,  I  think  it  would  be  a  great  deal 
better  to  act  as  though  you  had  the  feeling,  even  if  you 
had  not,  for  its  effect  in  carrying  your  audience  whither 
you  wish  to  carry  them. 

Q.  Do  you  approve  of  the  appointment  of  professional  re- 
vivalists ? 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  WORKING-ELEMENTS.          127 

MR.  BEECIIER.  —  Yes,  if  I  employ  them.  If  they 
use  me,  I  do  not  like  it.  The  term  "  professional 
revivalist "  is  a  fortunate  one.  I  have  known  a  great 
many  of  these  persons,  and  a  great  many  that  did  not 
do  much  good.  Others  I  have  known  who  have  done 
a  great  deal  of  good.  I  do  not  see  why,  if  a  man  has 
received  from  God  the  gifts  of  arousing  people,  and 
bringing  them  to  see  and  acknowledge  the  great  moral 
truths  of  Christianity,  he  should  not  be  employed  as  a 
revivalist,  under  judicious  administration.  He  should 
be  employed  by  others,  always,  so  as  to  work  into  the 
hands  of  the  pastors,  so  as  to  unite  the  church,  and  not 
to  divide  it.  There  are  difficulties  in  the  "  evangelist 
system,"  but  there  are  benefits  in  it  also,  and  in  many 
cases,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  it  would  seem 
almost  indispensable  to  the  growth  of  the  churches. 
In  churches  that  maintain  a  regular  organization,  and 
are  alive  and  active,  I  do  not  see  the  need  of  profes- 
sional revivalists ;  but  where  they  are  run  down,  and 
in  scattered  neighborhoods,  I  would  certainly  advise 
the  use  of  such  instrumentalities. 


VI. 


.RHETOEICAL    DEILL    AND    GENERAL 
TRAINING. 

February  21,  1872. 

JHERE  is,  in  certain  quarters,  a  prejudice 
existing  against  personal  training  for 
preaching,  in  so  far  as  it  is  affected  by 
posture,  gestures,  and  the  like.  There  is 
a  feeling  abroad  in  regard  to  it,  as  though  it  would 
make  a  dramatic  art  out  of  that  which  should  be  a 
sacred  inspiration.  Men  exclaim,  "Think  of  Paul 
taking  lessons  in  posturing  and  gesticulation,  or  of  St. 
John  considering  beforehand  about  his  robes  and  the 
various  positions  that  he  should  assume ! "  They  say, 
"  Let  a  man  who  is  called  of  God  go  into  his  closet,  if 
he  would  prepare ;  let  him  be  filled  with  his  subject 
and  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  he  need  not  think  of 
anything  else." 

But  suppose  a  man  should  stutter,  and  you  should 
tell  him  to  go  into  his  closet  and  be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  would  it  cure  his  stuttering  ?  Suppose  a 
clergyman  is  a  great,  awkward,  sprawling  fellow,  do  you 
suppose  he  can  pray  himself  into  physical  grace  ?  You 
do  not  think  that  the  call  of  the  Divine  Spirit  is  a 


RHETORICAL   DRILL  AND   GENERAL  TRAINING.      129 

substitute  for  study  and  for  intellectual  preparation. 
You  know  that  a  man  needs  academical  or  professional 
education  in  order  to  preach  his  best.  But  the  same 
considerations  that  make  it  wise  for  you  to  pass  through 
a  liberal  education,  make  it  also  wise  for  you  to  pass 
through  a  liberal  drill  and  training  in  all  that  pertains 
to  oratory. 

THE  VOICE. 

It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  very  great  importance 
what  end  you  seek  by  such  training.  If  a  man  is 
attempting  to  make  himself  simply  a  great  orator,  if 
his  thought  of  preaching  is  how  to  present  the  most 
admirable  presence  before  the  people,  and  how  to  have 
tones  that  shall  be  most  ravishing  and  melting,  and 
if  he  consider  the  gesture  that  is  appropriate  to  this 
and  that  sentence,  —  in  short,  if  he  studies  as  an  actor 
studies,  and  as  an  actor  properly  studies,  too,  —  he  will 
make  a  great  mistake ;  for  what  are  the  actor's  ends 
are  but  the  preacher's  means.  On  the  other  hand,  as  a 
man's  voice  is  that  instrument  by  which  the  preacher 
has  to  perform  his  whole  work,  its  efficiency  is  well 
worthy  of  study.  For  instance,  the  voice  must  be 
elastic,  so  that  it  can  be  used  for  long  periods  of  time 
without  fatigue ;  and  the  habitual  speaker  should  learn 
to  derive  from  it  the  power  of  unconscious  force. 
There  is  just  as  much  reason  for  a  preliminary  system- 
atic and  scientific  drill  of  the  voice  as  there  is  for  the 
training  of  the  muscles  of  the  body  for  any  athletic 
exercise.  A  man  often  has,  when  he  begins  to  preach, 
a  low  and  feeble  voice ,  each  one  of  his  sentences 
seems  like  a  poor  scared  mouse  running  for  its  hole, 

6»  I 


130          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  everybody  sympathizes  with  the  man  as  he  is 
hurrying  through  his  discourse  in  this  way,  rattling  one 
word  into  the  other.  A  little  judicious  drill  would 
have  helped  him  out  of  that.  If  his  attention  can  be 
called  to  it  before  he  begins  his  ministry,  is  it  not 
worth  his  while  to  form  a  better  habit  ?  A  great  many 
men  commence  preaching  under  a  nervous  excitement. 
They  very  speedily  rise  to  a  sharp  and  hard  monotone ; 
and  then  they  go  on  through  their  whole  sermon  as 
fast  as  they  can,  never  letting  their  voices  go  above  or 
below  their  false  pitch,  but  always  sticking  to  that, 
until  everybody  gets  tired  out,  and  they  among  the 
rest. 

VARIOUS  VOCAL   ELEMENTS. 

If  a  man  can  be  taught  in  the  beginning  of  his 
ministry  something  about  suppleness  of  voice  and  the 
method  of  using  it,  it  is  very  much  to  his  advantage. 
For  example,  I  have  known  scores  of  preachers  w*ho 
had  not  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  explosive  tones 
of  the  voice.  Now  and  then  a  man  falls  into  it  "  by 
nature,"  as  it  is  said ;  that  is,  he  stumbles  into  it  acci- 
dentally. But  the  acquired  power  of  raising  the  voice 
at  will  in  its  ordinary  range,  then  explosively,  and 
again  in  its  higher  keys,  and  the  knowledge  of  its 
possibilities  under  these  different  phases,  will  be  very 
helpful.  It  will  help  the  preacher  to  spare  both  him- 
self and  his  people.  It  will  help  him  to  accomplish 
results  almost  unconsciously,  when  it  has  become  a 
habit,  that  could  not  be  gained  in  any  other  way. 

There  are  a  great  many  effects  in  public  speaking 
that  you  must  fall  into  the  conversational  tone  to  make. 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND   GENERAL  TRAINING.      131 

Every  man  ought  to  know  the  charm  there  is  in  that 
tone,  and  especially  when  using  the  vernacular  or 
idiomatic  English  phrases.  I  have  known  a  great 
many  most  admirable  preachers  who  lost  almost  all 
real  sympathetic  hold  upon  their  congregations  be- 
cause they  were  too  literary,  too  periphrastic,  and  too 
scholastic  in  their  diction.  They  always  preferred  to 
use  large  language,  rather  than  good  Saxon  English. 
But  let  me  tell  you,  there  is  a  subtle  charm  in  the  use 
of  plain  language  that  pleases  people,  they  scarcely 
know  why.  It  gives  bell-notes  which  ring  out  sugges- 
tions to  the  popular  heart.  There  are  words  that  men 
have  heard  when  boys  at  home,  around  the  hearth  and 
the  table,  words  that  are  full  of  father  and  of  mother, 
and  full  of  common  and  domestic  life.  Those  are  the 
words  that  afterward,  when  brought  into  your  discourse, 
will  produce  a  strong  influence  on  your  auditors,  giving 
an  element  of  success ;  words  which  will  have  an  effect 
that  your  hearers  themselves  cannot  understand.  For, 
after  all,  simple  language  is  loaded  down  and  stained 
through  with  the  best  testimonies  and  memories  of  life. 
Now,  being  sure  that  your  theme  is  one  of  interest,  and 
worked  out  with  thought,  if  you  take  language  of  that 
kind,  and  use  it  in  colloquial  or  familiar  phrases,  you 
must  adapt  to  it  a  quiet  and  natural  inflection  of  voice, 
—  for  almost  all  the  sympathetic  part  of  the  voice  is  in 
the  lower  tones  and  in  a  conversational  strain,  —  and 
you  will  evoke  a  power  that  is  triumphant  in  reaching 
the  heart,  and  in  making  your  labors  successful  among 
the  multitudes. 

But  there  is  a  great  deal  besides  that.     Where  you 
are  not  enforcing  anything,  but  are  persuading  or  en- 


132  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

couraging  men,  you  will  find  your  work  very  difficult 
if  you  speak  in  a  loud  tone  of  voice.  You  may  fire  an 
audience  with  a  loud  voice,  but  if  you  wish  to  draw 
them  into  sympathy  and  to  win  them  by  persuasion, 
and  are  near  enough  for  them  to  feel  your  magnet- 
ism and  see  your  eye,,  so  that  you  need  not  have  to 
strain  your  voice,  you  must  talk  to  them  as  a  father 
would  talk  to  his  child.  You  will  draw  them,  and 
will  gain  their  assent  to  your  propositions,  when  you 
could  do  it  in  no  other  way,  and  certainly  not  by 
shouting. 

On  the  other  hand,  where  you  are  in  eager  exhorta- 
tion, or  speaking  on  public  topics,  where  your  theme 
calls  you  to  denunciation,  to  invective,  or  anything  of 
that  kind,  the  sharp  and  ringing  tones  that  belong  to 
the  upper  register  are  sometimes  well-nigh  omnipotent. 
There  are  cases  in  which  by  a  single  explosive  tone  a 
man  will  drive  home  a  thought  as  a  hammer  drives  a 
nail ;  and  there  is  no  escape  from  it.  I  recollect,  on 
one  occasion,  to  have  heard  Dr.  Humphrey,  President 
of  Amherst  College,  who  certainly  was  not  a  rhetorician, 
speaking  in  respect  to  the  treatment  of  the  Indians. 
He  used  one  of  the  most  provincial  of  provincialisms, 
yet  it  came  with  an  explosive  tone  that  fastened  it 
in  my  memory ;  and  not  only  that,  but  it  gave  an 
impulse  to  my  whole  life,  I  might  say,  and  affected  me 
in  my  whole  course  and  labor  as  a  reformer.  It  was 
the  effect  of  but  a  single  word.  He  had  been  describing 
the  shameful  manner  in  which  our  government  had 
broken  treaties  with  the  Indians  in  Florida  and  Georgia, 
under  the  influence  of  Southern  statesmanship.  He 
went  on  saying  what  was  just  and  what  was  right,  and 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND   GENERAL   TRAINING.      133 

came  to  the  discussion  of  some  critical  point  of  policy 
which  had  been  proposed,  when  he  suddenly  ceased  his 
argument,  and  exclaimed,  "  The  voice  of  the  people 
will  be  lifted  up,  and  they  shall  say  to  the  government, 
YOU  SHA'N'T!"  Now  "sha'n't"  is  not  very  good 
English,  but  it  is  provincial,  colloquial,  and  very  fa- 
miliar to  every  boy.  It  carried  a  home  feeling  with  it, 
and  we  all  knew  what  it  meant.  He  let  it  out  like  a 
bullet,  and  the  whole  chapel  was  hushed  for  the  mo- 
ment, and  then  the  rustle  followed  which  showed  that 
the  shot  had  struck.  It  has  remained  in  my  memory 
ever  since. 

NECESSITY  OF  DRILL. 

All  these  various  modes  of  drilling  the  voice  are 
very  important.  They  give  the  power  to  use  it  on 
a  long  strain  without  tiring  it ;  to  use  it  from  top  to 
bottom,  so  as  to  have  all  the  various  effects,  and  to 
know  what  they  are ;  and  to  make  it  flexible,  so  that 
you  have  a  ready  instrument  at  your  will.  These 
are  very  important  elements  to  a  man  who  is  going  to 
be  a  preacher.  You  say,  "  Yes,  I  suppose  a  man  ought 
to  take  some  lessons  in  regard  to  these  things,  but  he 
need  not  make  it  a  study."  I  beg  your  pardon,  gen- 
tlemen, don't  touch  it  unless  you  are  going  to  make 
thorough  work  of  it.  No  knowledge  is  really  knowl- 
edge until  you  can  use  it  without  knowing  it.  You  do 
not  understand  the  truth  of  anything  until  it  has  so 
far  sunk  into  you  that  you  have  almost  forgotten 
where  you  got  it.  No  man  knows  how  to  play  a  piano 
who  stops  and  says,  "Let  me  see,  that  is  B,  and  that 
is  D,"  and  so  on.  When  a  man  has  learned  and  mas- 
i 


l.'J4  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

tered  his  instrument  thoroughly,  he  does  not  stop  to 
think  which  keys  he  must  strike,  hut  his  fingers  glide 
from  one  to  the  other  mechanically,  automatically,  al- 
most involuntarily.  This  subtle  power  comes  out  only 
when  he  has  subdued  his  instrument  and  forgotten 
himself,  conscious  of  nothing  but  the  ideas  and  har- 
monies which  he  wishes  to  express. 

If  you  desire  to  have  your  voice  at  its  best,  and 
to  make  the  best  use  of  it,  you  must  go  into  a 
drill  which  will  become  so  familiar  that  it  ceases 
to  be  a  matter  of  thought,  and  the  voice  takes  care 
of  itself.  This  ought  to  be  done  under  the  best  in- 
structors, if  you  have  the  opportunity ;  if  not,  then 
study  the  best  books  and  faithfully  practice  their  direc- 
tions. It  was  my  good  fortune,  in  early  academical 
life,  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  your  estimable  fellow- 
citizen,  Professor  Lovell,  now  of  Xew  Haven,  and  for  a 
period  of  three  years  I  was  drilled  incessantly  (you 
might  not  suspect  it,  but  I  was)  in  posturing,  gesture, 
and  voice-culture.  His  manner,  however,  he  very 
properly  did  not  communicate  to  me.  And  manner 
is  a  thing  which,  let  me  here  remark,  should  never 
be  communicated  or  imitated.  It  was  the  skill  of 
that  gentleman  that  he  never  left  a  manner  with 
anybody.  He  simply  gave  his  pupils  the  knowledge 
of  what  they  had  in  themselves.  Afterward,  when 
going  to  the  seminary,  I  carried  the  method  of  his  in- 
structions with  me,  as  did  others.  We  practiced  a 
great  deal  on  what  was  called  "  Dr.  Barber's  System," 
which  was  then  in  vogue,  and  particularly  in  develop- 
ing the  voice  in  its  lower  register,  and  also  upon  the 
explosive  tones.  There  was  a  large  grove  lying  be- 


RHETORICAL  DRILL  AND   GENERAL  TRAINING.      135 

tween  the  seminary  and  my  father's  house,  and  it  was 
the  habit  of  my  brother  Charles  and  myself,  and  one 
or  two  others,  to  make  the  night,  and  even  the  day, 
hideous  with  our  voices,  as  we  passed  backward  and 
forward  through  the  wood,  exploding  all  the  vowels, 
from  the  bottom  to  the  very  top  of  our  voices.  I 
found  it  to  be  a  very  manifest  benefit,  and  one  that 
has  remained  with  me  all  my  life  long.  The  drill  that 
I  underwent  produced,  not  a  rhetorical  manner,  but  a 
flexible  instrument,  that  accommodated  itself  readily  to 
every  kind  of  thought  and  every  shape  of  feeling,  and 
obeyed  the  inward  will  in  the  outward  realization  of 
the  results  of  rules  and  regulations. 

HEALTH   OF   THE  VOICE. 

In  respect  to  the  preservation  of  the  voice  there  is 
but  little  to  be  said,  except  this,  that  a  good,  healthy 
man,  who  maintains  wholesome  habits,  keeps  his  neck 
tough,  treats  his  head  and  chest  daily  with  cold  affu- 
sions, and  does  not  exhaust  himself  unnecessarily 
in  overstrained  speech,  should  not  find  it  difficult 
to  maintain  his  voice  in  a  healthy  condition,  and  that 
through  life.  I  will  not  go  into  that  obscure  subject 
of  ministers'  bronchitis.  I  never  had  it,  and  therefore 
know  nothing  of  it,  for  which  I  thank  God.  If  you 
have  it,  or  are  threatened  with  it,  it  is  rather  for  your 
physician  than  for  an  unskilled  person  to  give  you 
directions  about  it.  But,  generally,  a  healthy  body 
and  a  careful  prudence  in  the  exercise  of  the  voice 
will,  I  think,  go  far  to  make  you  sound  speakers  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  your  lives. 


LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 


BODILY  CARRIAGE  —  POSTURE. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  should  stand  awk- 
wardly because  it  is  natural.  It^is  not  necessary  that 
a  man,  because  he  may  not  be  able  to  stand  like  the 
statue  of  Apollo,  should  stand  ungracefully.  He  loses, 
unconsciously,  a  certain  power ;  for,  although  he  does 
not  need  a  very  fine  physical  figure  (which  is  rather 
a  hindrance,  I  think),  yet  he  should  be  pleasing  in 
his  bearing  and  gestures.  A  man  who  is  very  beauti- 
ful and  superlatively  graceful  sets  people  to  admiring 
him  ;  they  make  a  kind  of  monkey  god  of  him,  and  it 
stands  in  the  way  of  his  usefulness.  From  this  temp- 
tation most  of  us  have  been  mercifully  delivered.  On 
the  other  hand,  what  we  call  naturalness,  fitness,  good 
taste,  and  propriety  are  to  be  sought.  You  like  to  see 
a  man  come  into  your  parlor  with,  at  least,  ordinary 
good  manners  and  some  sense  of  propriety,  and  what 
y«u  require  in  your  parlor  you  certainly  have  a  right 
to  expect  in  church.  One  of  the  reasons  why  I  con- 
demn these  churns  called  pulpits  is  that  they  teach 
a  man  bad  habits  ;  he  is  heedless  of  his  posture,  and 
learns  bad  tricks  behind  these  bulwarks.  He  thinks 
that  people  will  not  see  them. 

GESTURE. 

So  with  gestures.  There  are  certain  people  who  will 
never  make  many  gestures,  but  they  should  see  to  it 
that  what  they  do  make  shall  be  graceful  and  appropri- 
ate. There  are  others  who  are  impulsive,  and  so  full 
of  feeling  that  they  throw  it  out  in  every  direction,  and 
it  is,  therefore,  all  the  more  important  that  their  action 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND    GENERAL   TRAINING.      137 

shall  be  shorn  of  awkwardness  and  constrained  man- 
nerism. Xow  and  then  a  man  is  absolutely  dramatic, 
as,  for  instance,  John  B.  Gough,  who  could  not  speak 
otherwise.  It  is  unconscious  with  him.  It  is  inherent 
in  all  natural  orators ;  they  put  themselves  at  once, 
unconsciously,  in  sympathy  with  the  things  they  are 
describing.  In  any  of  these  situations,  whether  you  are 
inclined  to  but  little  action  or  a  great  deal,  or  even  to 
dramatic  forms  of  action,  it  is  very  desirable  that  you 
should  drill  yourselves  and  practice  incessantly,  so  that 
your  gestures  shall  not  offend  good  taste.  This,  too,  is 
a  very  different  thing  from  practicing  before  a  mirror, 
and  it  is  a  very  different  thing  from  making  actors  of 
yourselves.  It  is  an  education  that  ought  to  take  place 
early,  and  which  ought  to  be  incorporated  into  your 
very  being. 

SEMINARY   TRAINING. 

I  will  pass  on  now  to  some  suggestions  in  respect  to 
your  seminary  course.  I  know  very  well  how  impa- 
tient and  eager  many  students  are  to  get  rid  of  the 
two  or  three  years'  training  which  is  required  in  the 
seminary.  A  man  who  is  naturally  a  scholar  loves  to 
procure  knowledge,  because  it  is  a  luxury  for  him  to 
study.  He  will  probably  be  an  over-studious  man,  and 
will  need  to  be  checked  rather  than  stimulated  to 
greater  activity.  But  those  who  are  impatient  of 
study,  and  are  longing  to  go  into  the  field,  and  who 
want  to  pray  and  converse  with  impenitent  sinners  and 
bring  them  into  the  Kingdom,  will  often  say,  "  What 
do  you  suppose  Latin  and  Greek  have  got  to  do  with 
that ;  can't  we  begin  the  work  without  any  such  labori- 


138  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

ous  preparation  as  this  ? "     I  know  what  the  feeling 
is ;  I  have  seen  it  displayed  very  often. 

If  you  will  read  the  familiar  correspondence  of  Gen- 
eral Sherman  during  the  war,  which  was  published  by 
the  War  Department,  you  will  see  that,  months  and 
months  before  his  great  march,  he  was  studying  the 
country  through  which  he  was  about  to  go,  its  resources, 
its  power  of  sustaining  armies,  its  populousness,  the 
habits  of  the  people,  in  short,  everything  that  be- 
longed to  it,  in  every  relation,  and  all  the  questions 
that  could  possibly  arise  in  regard  to  it.  He  had  dis- 
cussed them  on  both  sides  and  on  two  or  three  hypoth- 
eses, so  that  when  he  started  upon  his  famous  march 
he  had  really  gone  over  the  country  in  advance,  and 
made  himself  the  military  master  of  its  features  and 
character.  He  was  possessed  of  all  the  knowledge 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  grapple  with  any  event 
that  might  take  place.  He  was  prepared  for  any 
of  two  or  three  different  lines  of  action.  Now,  you 
have  a  campaign  that  is  a  great  deal  longer  than  his, 
and  an  enemy  that  is  a  great  deal  harder  to  fight ;  and 
you  must  make  diligent  preparation.  You  must  lay 
up  all  the  knowledge  you  can,  now,  and  form  habits  of 
earnest  study  that  shall  make  your  whole  after-life's 
work  comparatively  easy.  You  will  have  enough  di- 
rect action  when  you  get  into  the  field ;  and  it  be- 
hooves you  now  to  do  whatever  you  can  to  abbreviate 
your  future  labors. 

STUDY  OF   THE  BIBLE. 

In  the  first  place,  the  whole  science  of  interpreta- 
tion, the  whole  study  of  the  Word  of  God  and  all  the 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND   GENERAL   TRAINING.      139 

developments  that  are  either  based  upon  it  or  nearly 
touch  it,  will  be  a  world  of  advantage  to  you.  I  had 
the  good  fortune  to  be  under  Professor  Stowe  in  my 
theological  training.  Those  who  have  gone  through  a 
course  with  him  need  not  be  told  how  much  knowledge 
he  has,  nor  his  keen  and  crystalline  way  of  putting 
that  knowledge.  The  advantages  which  I  derived  from 
his  teaching,  his  way  of  taking  hold  of  Scripture,  the 
knowledge  I  got  of  the  book  as  a  whole,  are  inesti- 
mable to  me.  These  I  got  wliile  pursuing  my  studies 
in  the  seminary.  In  looking  over  my  old  note-books, 
which  I  filled  independently  of  my  course  there,  but 
which  were  partly  in  consequence  of  it  and  partly  from 
teaching  in  the  Bible  class,  I  found  I  had  gone  then 
very  nearly  through  the  Xew  Testament  with  close  and 
careful  study,  and  had  formed  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  it,  before  I  began  to  preach  regularly.  In 
the  early  years  of  my  ministry  I  engaged  in  a  great 
amount  of  exegetical  study  and  interpretation  of  the 
Word  of  God,  having  one  service  every  week  which 
was  mainly  devoted  to  that  work.  Now,  the  prelimi- 
nary acquisition  of  the  power  to  do  that  will  abbreviate 
your  after-work  more  than  you  can  tell.  Do  not 
believe  that  your  enthusiasm  will  be  a  light  always 
burning.  You  must  have  oil  in  your  lamps.  Study 
and  patient  labor  are  indispensable  even  to  genius. 
God  may  have  given  you  genius,  but  unless  he  has  also 
given  you  industry,  the  genius  will  leak  away,  unused, 
wasted,  without  profit.  Inspiration,  intuition,  and  all 
the  efflorescence  of  genius,  are  Divine  gifts ;  yet  there 
must  be  some  material  for  them  to  work  upon.  You 
cannot  have  a  flame  unless  there  is  something  that  will 


140  LECTURES   OX   PREACHING. 

feed  combustion  ;  you  cannot  study  too  much  -while  in 
the  seminary,  preparing  for  the  field  of  your  future 
labors.  It  will  neither  cumber  you  nor  hinder  you. 
It  will  facilitate  your  work  at  every  step. 

THEOLOGY. 

In  respect  to  systematic  theology  the  same  is  true. 
It  is  very  desirable,  I  think,  that  every  preacher  should 
have  not  merely  gone  through  a  system,  but  that  he 
should  have  studied  comparative  theology.  He  ought 
to  study  that  system  on  which  he  expects  to  base  his 
ministry ;  and  it  is  also  desirable  that  he  should  take 
cross-views  of  differing  systems  of  theology,  —  for  a 
variety  of  reasons.  You  may  think  you  are  going  to 
preach  some  particular  system,  —  but  most  of  you  will 
not,  even  if  you  try.  You  may  take  your  teachers' 
views  of  theology  and  preach  them  for  a  while,  but 
they  will  not  suit  you  long.  Every  man  who  is  fit  to 
preach  will,  before  many  years,  begin  to  have  an  out- 
line of  his  own  theology  very  distinctively  marked  out. 
But  it  is  always  necessary  to  know  what  other  men  have 
thought,  to  practice  close  thinking,  to  be  drilled  in 
sharp  and  nice  discrimination,  and  to  have  a  mind  that 
is  not  slatternly  and  loose,  but  which  knows  how  to 
work  philosophically.  You  are  to  meet  men  who  know 
how  to  think,  if  you  do  not.  You  may  be  called  to 
take  a  parish  in  which  the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  and  two 
or  three  retired  gentlemen  will  know  a  great  deal  more 
than  you  do,  and  will  turn  up  their  noses  whenever 
you  undertake  to  preach  a  sermon.  Yon  cannot  afford 
to  have  a  man  in  your  parish  accuse  you  of  being  a 
boy  in  the  pulpit.  Every  man  who  preaches  from  year 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND   GENERAL   TRAINING.      141 

to  year  has  a  system.  He  may  not  have  the  current 
one.  It  may  not  be  Calvin  after  the  manner  of  Ed- 
wards, nor  Calvin  according  to  D wight,  nor  Calvin  as 
it  is  taught  at  Princeton,  nor  yet  Arrniuianism.  It 
may  be  this,  that,  or  the  other,  of  the  various  shades,  — 
or  a  new  shade  of  his  own.  So  that  you  must  form 
the  mental  habit  of  looking  at  all  presentations  of 
truth.  You  will  observe  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  a 
minister  to  give  lectures  in  theology  to  his  people, 
however  much  he  may  know,  —  though  there  might  be 
worse  things  than  that.  You  might  have  an  occasional 
familiar  lecture  on  special  points  of  theology,  and  in- 
doctrinate your  people  with  them.  But  your  sermons 
must  be  philosophical  in  principle  and  thoroughly 
thought  out.  You  must  acquire  the  habit  of  thinking, 
of  looking  at  truth,  not  in  isolated  and  fragmentary 
forms,  but  in  all  its  relations ;  and  of  using  it  con- 
stantly as  an  instrument  of  producing  good.  You  see 
I  do  believe  in  the  science  of  theology,  though  I  may 
not  give  my  faith  to  any  particular  school  of  it,  in  all 
points.  But  no  school  can  dispense  with  a  habit  of 
thinking  according  to  the  laws  of  cause  and  effect,  for 
that  is  absolutely  necessary. 

A  SMALL  PARISH  AT  FIRST. 

In  your  first  settlement,  young  gentlemen,  remember 
th'e  parable.  When  you  are  invited  to  a  feast,  take 
not  the  highest  seat,  but  take  rather  the  lowest  place, 
so  that  it  shall  be  said  to  you,  "  Friend,  go  up  higher." 

When  a  young  man  is  just  going  out,  and  is  begin- 
ning to  preach,  and  men  find  great  hopes  in  him,  one 
of  the  worst  things  that  can  befall  him  is  to  think 


142  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

himself  an  uncommon  man,  a  man  of  prospects  ;  and 
to  have  it  whispered  here  and  there,  "  0,  he  will  shake 
the  world  yet ! "  These  things  are  very  mischievous 
to  a  young  man,  especially  if  they  lead  him  to  start 
at  a  faster  pace  than  he  can  well  maintain.  One  of 
the  most  common  mistakes  a  young  man  makes  is  in 
thinking  that  he  must  have  a  place  large  enough  for 
his  talents;  he  does  not  know  where  to  bestow  his 
goods  !  If  there  is  an  opportunity  to  take  a  small 
country  place  he  will  take  it  "just  temporarily,"  but 
he  has  his  eye  on  four  or  five  calls,  which  he  thinks  are 
very  likely  to  come  to  him.  This  conceit  is  very  dele- 
terious. When  you  enter  upon  the  work  of  'the  min- 
istry it  is  very  desirable  that  you  should  take  a  small 
and  humble  sphere,  even  if  you  afterward  are  called  to 
a  large  one.  You  should  begin  at  the  bottom. 

In  the  first  place,  you  cannot  develop  so  well  in  any 
other  way  the  needful  creative  and  administrative 
faculties.  If  I  were  Pope  in  America,  besides  a  hun- 
dred other  things  that  would  be  done,  I  would  send 
every  young  man  that  was  anxious  to  preach  into  the 
extreme  West,  and  I  would  make  him  think  that  he 
was  never  coming  back  again.  He  should  work  there 
for  ten  years  ;  then  I  think  he  might  begin  to  be  ready 
for  a  larger  place,  or  an  older  church.  I  would  not  let 
him  know  my  future  plans  for  him,  but  he  should 
think  he  was  going  to  remain  there,  and  do  his  work. 

One  especial  advantage  of  a  small  parish  is  that  you 
are  obliged  to  do  your  work  by  knowing  every  person 
in  the  community,  studying  every  one  of  them,  and 
knowing  how  to  impress  and  manage  them  by  your 
personal  influence  and  the  power  of  the  gospel. 


RHETORICAL  DRILL  AND   GENERAL   TRAINING.      143 

Every  young  .minister,  too,  ought  to  have  a  parish 
where  he  shall  have  some  time  to  study,  where  he  shall 
not  be  hurried  and  worried  with  extra  meetings,  with 
excitements  and  with  various  distractions.  When  you 
first  begin  to  preach,  you  have  a  raw,  untrained  nervous 
system,  which  cannot  bear  so  much  as  it  can  afterward. 
A  man's  brain  gets  tough  by  exercise.  I  can  now  go 
through  an  amount  of  brain-work  that  would  have 
killed  me  outright  in  the  first  years  of  my  ministerial 
life.  I  can  trace  the  gradually  accumulating  power  of 
endurance  of  brain  excitement. 

AN  EARLY  EXPERIENCE  IN  THE  WEST. 

It  was  my  lot  at  first  to  be  placed  in  a  village  with 
a  mere  handful  of  inhabitants  in  one  of  the  Western 
States.  I  conceive  it  to  be  one  of  the  kindnesses  of 
Providence  that  I  was  sent  to  so  small  a  place.  I  had 
but  one  male  member  in  the  church,  and  I  wished  him 
out  all  the  time  I  was  there.  (Let  me  illustrate  by 
personal  allusions,  if  you  please ;  for  I  do  not  know 
why  you  ask  ministers  from  active  parishes  to  advise 
you,  unless  they  should  tell  you  something  of  their 
experience.) 

I  practiced  public  speaking  from  the  time  of  my 
sophomore  year  in  college.  I  was  addicted  to  going  out 
and  making  temperance  speeches,  and  holding  confer- 
rence  meetings,  so  that  I  acquired  considerable  confi- 
dence, being  naturally  very  diffident.  When  I  went 
to  the  seminary  I  still  kept  up  that  habit,  practicing 
whenever  I  had  the  opportunity.  At  the  end  of  my 
three  years'  seminary  course  —  six  months  of  which, 
however,  were  diverted  to  editorial  work,  a  loss  of  time 


144          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  iny  studies  which  was  afterwards  made  up  —  I  went 
to  a  small  town  in  Indiana,  the  last  one  in  the  State 
towards  Cincinnati,  on  the  Ohio  Eiver.  It  had  perhaps 
five  or  six  hundred  inhabitants.  It  had  in  it  a  Meth- 
odist, a  Baptist,  and  this  Presbyterian  Church  to  which 
I  went.  The  church  would  hold,  perhaps,  from  two 
hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  people.  It  had  no 
lamps  and  no  hymn-books.  It  had  nineteen  female 
members;  and  the  whole  congregation  could  hardly 
raise  from  $200  to  8250  as  salary.  I  took  that  field 
and  went  to  work  in  it. 

Among  the  earliest  things  I  did  was  to  beg  money 
from  Cincinnati  to  buy  side-lamps  to  hang  up  in  the 
church,  so  that  we  could  have  night  service.  After  be- 
ing there  a  month  or  two  I  went  to  Cincinnati  again, 
and  collected  money  enough  to  buy  hymn-books.  I 
distributed  them  in  the  seats.  Before  this  the  hymns 
had  been  lined  out.  I  recollect  one  of  the  first  strokes 
of  management  I  ever  attempted  in  that  parish  was  in 
regard  to  these  hymn-books.  Instead  of  asking  the 
people  if  they  were  willing  to  have  them,  I  just  put 
the  books  into  the  pews ;  for  there  are  ten  men  that 
will  fight  a  change  about  which  they  are  consulted, 
to  one  that  will  fight  it  when  it  has  taken  place.  I 
simply  made  the  change  for  them.  There  was  a  little 
looking  up  and  looking  around,  but  nothing  was  said. 
So  after  that  we  sang  out  of  books.  Then  there  was 
nobody  in  the  church  to  light  the  lamps,  and  they  could 
not  afford  to  get  a  sexton.  Such  a  thing  was  unknown 
in  the  primitive  simplicity  of  that  Hoosier  time.  Well, 
I  unanimously  elected  myself  to  be  the  sexton.  I  swept 
out  the  church,  trimmed  the  lamps  and  lighted  them. 


RHETORICAL  DRILL   AND   GENERAL  TRAINING.      145 

I  was,  literally,  the  light  of  that  church.  I  did  n't  stop 
to  groan  about  it,  or  moan"  about  it,  but  I  did  it.  At 
first,  the  men-folk  thereabout  seemed  to  think  it  was 
chaff  to  catch  them  with,  or  something  of  that  kind ; 
but  I  went  steadily  on  doing  the  work.  After  a  month 
or  so  two  young  men,  who  were  clerks  in  a  store  there, 
suggested  to  me  that  they  would  help  me.  I  "  did  n't 
think  I  wanted  any  help ;  it  was  only  what  one  man 
could  do."  Then  they  suggested  three  or  four  of  us 
taking  one  month  each,  and  in  that  way  they  were 
worked  in. 

It  was  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened  to  them. 
Having  something  to  do  in  the  church  was  a  means  of 
grace  to  them.  It  drew  them  to  me  and  me  to  them. 
None  of  them  were  Christian  young  men ;  but  I  con- 
sulted them  about  various  things,  and  by  and  by  I 
brought  a  case  to  them.  I  said,  "  Here  is  a  young  man 
who  is  in  great  danger  of  going  the  wrong  way  and 
losing  his  soul.  What  do  you  think  is  the  best  means 
of  getting  at  him  ? "  It  made  them  rather  sober  and 
thoughtful  to  be  talking  about  the  salvation  of  that 
young  man's  soul,  and  the  upshot  was  that  they  saved 
their  own.  They  very  soon  afterward  came  into  the 
Spirit,  and  were  converted,  and  became  good  Christian 
men. 

Now,  while  I  was  there,  I  preached  the  best  sermons 
I  knew  how  to  get  up.  I  remember  distinctly  that 
every  Sunday  night  I  had  a  headache.  I  went  to  bed 
every  Sunday  night  with  a  vow  registered  that  I  would 
buy  a  farm  and  quit  the  ministry.  If  I  have  said  it 
once,  I  have  said  it  five  hundred  times,  that  I  spoilt  a 
good  farmer  to  make  a  poor  minister. 

7  j 


146  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

I  said  a  great  many  extravagant  things  in  my  pul- 
pit, and  preached  with  a  great  deal  of  crudeness.  I 
preached  a  great  many  sermons,  which,  after  six  months, 
I  would  not  have  preached  again.  I  frequently  did  as 
many  young  men  do,  shaped  into  a  general  truth  that 
which  was  truth  only  under  certain  circumstances,  and 
with  a  particular  class  of  people. 

I  was  a  great  reader  of  the  old  sermonizers.  I  read 
old  Eobert  South  through  and  through ;  I  saturated 
myself  with  South ;  I  formed  much  of  my  style  and 
my  handling  of  texts  on  his  methods.  I  obtained  a 
vast  amount  of  instruction  and  assistance  from  others 
of  those  old  sermonizers,  who  were  as  familiar  to  me  as 
my  own  name.  I  read  Barrow,  Howe,  Sherlock,  Butler, 
and  Edwards  particularly.  I  preached  a  great  many 
sermons  while  reading  these  old  men,  and  upon  their 
discourses  I  often  founded  the  framework  of  my  own. 
After  I  had  preached  them,  I  said  to  myself,  "That 
will  never  do  ;  I  would  n't  preach  that  again  for  all  the 
world."  But  I  was  learning,  and  nobody  ever  tripped 
me  up.  I  had  no  Board  of  Elders  ready  to  bring  me 
back  to  orthodoxy.  I  had  time  to  sow  all  my  minis- 
terial wild  oats,  and  without  damage  to  my  people,  for 
they  knew  too  little  to  know  whether  I  was  orthodox 
or  not.  And  it  was,  generally,  greatly  to  their  advan- 
tage, because  people  are  very  much  like  fishes.  "Whales 
take  vast  quantities  of  water  into  their  mouths  for  the 
sake  of  the  animalculaa  it  contains,  and  then  blow  out 
the  water,  while  keeping  in  the  food.  People  do  pretty 
much  the  same.  They  don't  believe  half  that  you  say. 
The  part  that  is  nutritious  they  keep,  and  the  rest  they 
let  alone.  This  early  ministerial  training  does  not  hurt 


RHETORICAL  DRILL   AND   GENERAL   TRAINING.      147 

them,  but  it  is  invaluable  to  a  young  man  who  is  get- 
ting the  bearings  of  his  new  station,  and  learning  how 
to  handle  the  ship  that  God  has  given  him  to  saiL 

GENERAL   HINTS. 

After  faithful  and  constant  practice  in  such  a  place 
as  this,  you  will  after  a  very  little  time  begin  to  make 
fewer  and  fewer  mistakes,  and  you  will  be  able  to  bear 
more  and  more  work.  You  will  be  able  to  do  more 
creative  work  after  this  preparation,  and  to  make  the 
most  of  your  resources.  You  will  also  learn  how  to 
handle  men  and  things,  and  you  will  be  determined 
upon  success  in  your  work;  in  other  words,  it  will  make 
a  man  of  you.  . 

Let  me  tell  you  one  secret :  that  a  strong  country 
church  is  a  position  of  very  much  more  influence  than 
nineteen  out  of  twenty  city  churches.  City  churches 
are  more  nearly  like  wells  than  anything  else.  They 
have  their  own  little  circle,  and  outside  of  that  nothing. 
Country  churches  are  like  rivers.  They  are  collected 
from  far-distant  regions,  and  run  a  great  way.  Then 
again,  in  a  city,  three  or  four  churches  only  are  con- 
spicuous and  popular,  and  the  rest  are  comparatively 
unknown.  Keep  out  of  the  city  as  long  as  you  can. 
Do  not  aspire  to  so-called  great  churches  and  great 
places.  Go  into  rural  neighborhoods.  Begin  your 
ministry  with  the  common  people.  Get  seasoned  with 
the  humanity  and  sympathies  which  belong  to  men  ; 
mix  with  farmers,  mechanics,  and  laboring  men;  eat 
with  them,  sleep  with  them ;  for,  after  all,  there  is  the 
great  substance  of  humanity.  You  will  get  it  in  its 
purest  and  simplest  forms  there.  You  will  have  time 


148          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  grow  and  strengthen  yourselves.  Your  bodies  will 
grow  wholesome.  Your  brains  will  grow  strong.  Your 
nervous  systems  will  get  tough,  so  that  if  ever  God 
opens  the  door  and  calls  you  to  a  more  difficult  sphere, 
you  can  fill  it,  and  do  twice  as  much  work  with  more 
certainty  and  with  more  success  than  if  called  to  the 
larger  place  in  the  beginning  of  your  ministry. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  How  about  living  in  those  little  places  that  don't  pay 
enough  to  live  upon  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Live  within  your  income. 

There  was  a  Mr.  Bushnell,  quite  as  famous  in  his 
way,  in  Ohio,  as  Horace  Bushnell  was  in  Connecticut, 
although  of  different  make.  He  was  a  man  like  Paul, 
insignificant  in  presence,  small,  and  weak-eyed,  and  I 
believe,  now,  is  blind  entirely.  He  was  a  man  who,  be- 
sides having  a  heart  consecrated  to  God  and  humanity, 
was  also  fearless,  brave,  and  enterprising.  There  was 
a  little  settlement  below  Cincinnati,  called  Cleves.  The 
people  there  had  driven  out  every  minister  they  had 
had.  The  Methodists  tried  it,  and  if  they  cannot  stick, 
you  may  say  it  is  a  tough  place.  They  had  to  abandon 
that  neighborhood.  Bushnell  determined  that  the  gos- 
pel should  be  preached  there,  and  thither  he  went ;  and 
it  was  at  a  time,  too,  when  it  was  enough  to  burn  a  man 
to  have  it  known  that  he  was  an  abolitionist.  Bush- 
nell went  there  and  preached,  and  took  no  pains  to  hide 
the  fact  in  the  neighborhood  that  he  was  an  abolitionist, 
although  he  was  so  near  Kentucky,  which  was  just 
over  the  river.  He  could  not  get  a  man  in  that  region 


RHETORICAL   DRILL   AND   GENERAL  TRAINING.      149 

who  would  take  him  to  board.  Finally,  he  found  an 
old  cabin  that  was  abandoned  by  some  negroes.  He 
daubed  it  over  with  mud,  and  fixed  it  up  so  that  it 
would  shelter  him.  He  went  into  the  place,  lived  in  it>, 
cooked  for  himself,  took  care  of  himself,  and  preached 
to  this  people. 

At  first  they  would  n't  go  to  hear  him.  He  started 
out  after  them.  He  went  into  the  fields  and  talked 
with  them.  He  said,  "  Xow  I  will  tell  you,  you  may 
just  as  well  come  to  church ;  if  you  won't  come  where 
I  preach,  I  shall  go  to  you." 

They  began  to  admire  the  man's  pluck.  "  He  is  a 
little  fellow,"  they  said,  "  but  he  is  so  courageous ! " 
They  had  threatened  him  with  everything ;  but  they 
finally  began  to  listen  to  him.  The  first  man  that 
came  was  an  infidel.  He  had  been  made  an  infidel  by 
the  teachings  of  Christian  churches  and  ministers  that 
the  Bible  justified  slavery.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
benevolence  and  great  justice,  and  he  said,  "  If  Chris- 
tianity teaches  that,  I  will  never  be  a  Christian."  When 
he  heard  of  a  minister  who  denounced  slavery,  and 
proved  from  the  Bible  that  it  was  unjust,  he  said,  "  I 
want  to  hear  that  man."  When  he  found  what  manner 
of  man  he  was,  he  joined  himself  to  the  new-comer. 
He  was  converted,  and  became  an  active  Christian  man. 
The  result  was,  that  Bushnell  very  soon  gathered  up  a 
little  church,  and  they  had  prayer-meetings  and  other 
Christian  gatherings  in  the  neighborhood,  which  effec- 
tively began  the  work  of  regenerating  it. 

Xow  I  want  to  know  what  success  Bushnell  would 
have  met  with  if  he  had  put  on  a  broadcloth  coat,  and 
had  questioned  and  paltered  with  the  people,  saying, 


150  LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

"  How  much  salary  will  you  give  me  ? "  or  if  he  had 
asked  himself,  "  Is  it  my  duty  to  settle  down  there  ? " 
I  believe  that  the  Word  of  Christ  is  the  best  charter 
of  every  Christian  minister.  "  Seek  ye  first  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you."  There  is  nothing  that 
makes  salary  so  fast  as  not  to  care  for  it,  and  to  put 
your  whole  life  and  soul  into  the  work  of  God's  min- 
istry, so  that  men  feel  to  the  bottom  of  their  hearts 
that  there  is  a  man  who  has  got  hold  of  them.  JSTo  man 
will  starve.  I  do  not  mean  by  that  that  there  is  to  be 
no  consideration  for  the  future,  but  I  mean  to  say  that  a 
generous  trust  in  the  people  and  an  earnest  devotion 
to  work  will  insure  a  man  all  the  support  that  he  needs. 

Q.  Would  you  advise  a  young  man  to  settle  immediately  upon 
leaving  the  seminary,  especially  in  going  West  ? 

Yes;  the  quicker  you  get  to  work  after  you  are 
through  your  studies  the  better.  People  sometimes 
say,  "  Do  you  think  it  would  be  better  for  me  to  go  to 
Edinburgh  and  take  a  course  there  ? "  or,  "  How  would 
it  be  if  I  should  go  to  Germany  ? "  Well,  if  you  are 
going  to  be  a  critical  student,  a  professor,  or  if  you  are 
going  to  compile  a  dictionary  or  take  a  chair  in  a  theo- 
logical seminary  ;  if  your  life  is  going  to  be  a  scholar's 
life,  in  contradistinction  from  a  preacher's  life,  —  I 
should  say  that  a  post-seminary  course  is  advisable. 
But,  if  you  are  going  to  be  working  among  men,  do  not 
delay  your  work  one  unnecessary  moment  after  getting 
through  your  seminary  course.  An  academical  educa- 
tion is  somewhat  exclusive  in  its  character,  and  tends 
to  foster  a  class-spirit.  You  are  separated  from  the 


RHETORICAL    DRILL   AND    GENERAL   TRAINING.       151 

people,  and  are  kept  out  of  the  ordinary  run  of  human 
life ;  you  are,  as  it  were,  made  monks  of.  If  you  are 
fit  for  your  work,  the  sooner  you  get  into  real  business 
in  the  field,  the  better  for  you. 

Q.  Would  you  have  a  man  preach  while  he  is  in  the  seminary  ? 

I  should  say,  Yes.  The  habit  of  bringing  your 
minds  to  bear  on  other  people,  in  a  moral  point  of 
view,  ought-  to  be  kept  up  all  the  way  through,  from 
beginning  to  end.  A  habit  of  thinking  of  other  peo- 
ple's welfare,  laboring  for  it,  and  accumulating  the 
material  by  which  you  will  accomplish  it,  carrying  your 
heart  warm  all  the  time,  is  a  good  thing  for  a  man  who 
is  going  to  preach  and  to  be  a  minister  of  Christ. 

Q.  Are  not  these  little  mean  places  very  unfavorable  for  the 
culture  of  grace,  etc.  ? 

MR.  BEECHER,  —  They  are  not  mean. 

Q.  I  think  your  first  settlement,  Lawrenceburg,  was  mean. 

MR.  BEECHER,  —  No ;  it  was  not  It  was  a  good 
place  to  train  a  young  minister.  We  are  all  sinful. 
My  church  was  sinful,  and  its  pastor  was.  There  were 
various  degrees  of  sinners  all  the  way  through.  But 
that  little  town  had  one  woman  in  it  that  redeemed  the 
place,  and  if  I  had  the  making  of  a  Catholic  calendar  I 
would  enroll  her  as  a  saint.  Old  Mother  Rice  taught 
me  more  practical  godliness  than  any  one  else,  except 
my  own  father.  She  was  a  laboring- woman,  the  wife 
of  an  old,  drunken,  retired  sea-captain.  They  were  so 
poor  that  they  had  to  live  above  a  cooper's  shop,  with 
loose  planks  for  a  floor,  which  wabbled  as  you  walked 
over  them,  and  through  which  you  could  see  the  men 
at  work  below.  Her  husband  would  abuse  her  and 


152  LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

swear  at  her.  But  there  was  never  any  person  in  dis- 
tress in  the  town  that  Mother  Pace  did  not  visit.  No 
case  of  sickness  occurred  that  she  did  not  consecrate 
the  chamber  with  her  presence.  There  was  nobody  who 
was  discouraged  and  needed  comfort  that  did  not  ex- 
perience her  kind  offices.  She  was  one  of  the  sweetest, 
gentlest,  and  serenest  of  women.  This  place  was  like 
the  mud  and  rubbish  brought  up  by  the  diver,  which 
yet  contains  a  beautiful  pearl.  This  woman  would 
have  redeemed  that  town  from  being  mean,  even  if  it 
had  had  no  other  good  tiling  in  it.  You  can  always 
find  goodness  and  nobility  by  looking  for  it. 

A  STUDENT.  —  I  know  something  about  the  Bushnell  of  whom 
you  have  spoken,  and,  although  he  is  a  man  whom  everybody 
regards  with  respect,  yet  he  is  not  a  man  who  comes  up  to  your 
idea  of  what  a  minister  should  be. 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  I  only  mentioned  his  name  to  illus- 
trate how  a  man  will  succeed  by  going  into  the  lowest 
and  most  hardened  community  with  a  consecrated 
spirit,  Avith  courage,  and  with  a  determination  to  suc- 
ceed. I  do  not  hold  him  up  as  a  model  minister 
throughout  his  whole  ministerial  life,  by  any  means. 

THE  SAME  STUPENT.  —  I  simply  brought  up  his  name  in  this  con- 
nection to  show  the  difficulty  there  is  connected  with  going 
West,  into  these  little  places,  in  regard  to  culture.  You  hold  that 
we  ought  to  have  a  certain  grace  and  ease  of  bearing.  It  seems  to 
me  that  that  kind  of  a  place  is  very  undesirable  for  such  training. 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Then  cany  it  there.  That  should 
be  part  of  a  minister's  influence  out  there.  The  theory 
that  lies  behind  every  other  is  that  a  minister  is  a  little 
Christ,  that  lie  teaches  men  about  Christ  by  acting  the 
life  of  Clirist  over  again  right  before  them,  with  the 


RHETORICAL   DRILL  AXD    GENERAL   TRAINING.      153 

same  humiliation,  self-denial,  and  self-sacrifice  that 
Jesus  Christ  displayed  when  on  earth  among  men. 
Now  this,  as  a  model,  is  so  high  that  we  shall  all  fall 
short  of  it ;  but  it  is  an  ideal  that  will  do  you  a  great 
deal  of  good  to  keep  in  your  mind,  if  you  are  going  to 
set  yourself  up  before  your  fellow-men  as  teachers  and 
preachers  of  the  life  that  is  reserved  for  God's  people. 
You  must  be  to  them  what  Christ  was,  in  his  time,  to 
those  around  him. 

Did  you  ever  read  Parkman's  History  of  the  Jesu- 
its, in  relation  to  their  missions  in  Canada  among  the 
Northern  Indians  ?  That  book  ought  to  be  read  by 
every  Protestant  clergyman,  and  especially  by  those 
who  think  there  is  no  piety  in  the  Catholic  Church. 
No  matter  how  erroneous  their  teaching  may  be,  they 
displayed  some  of  the  sweetest  and  noblest  traits  of 
self-devotion  ever  recorded  in  the  pages  of  history,  in 
their  missionary  work  among  the  Indians.  They  went 
among  them  in  their  rudest  estate,  lived  in  their  smoky 
huts,  were  derided,  hooted  at,  and  contemned,  year  after 
year.  They  were  men  of  culture  and  refinement,  and 
men  who  had  earned  at  home  a  world-wide  reputation ; 
yet  they  lived  in  these  wigwams  without  a  single  con- 
vert, and  were  willing  to  live  forty  years  there,  faithful 
in  labor,  and  then  die  without  a  sign  of  success.  They 
rebuke  us  in  our  missionary  work. 

Q.  May  it  not  be  desirable  to  spend  a  year  in  an  Eastern  parish 
before  going  West  ? 

Mi:.  BEECHER.  —  No,  sir!  You  will  never  go  West 
if  you  do.  If  you  go  West  and  endure  hardships  like 
a  good  soldier,  you  will  gradually  become  worthy  to 
occupy  an  easier  post  when  you  shall  be  called  to  one. 

7* 


VII. 

RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

BELIEVE  it  was  Locke  who  inveighed 
against  Illustrations  as  the  enemies  of  truth, 
as  leading  men  astray  by  latent  or  supposed 
analogies ;  and  yet  I  apprehend  that  the 
strictest  and  most  formal  processes  of  logical  reasoning 
have  led  just  as  many  men  astray  as  ever  illustrations 
did.  You  can  perplex  people,  and  you  can,  with  great 
facility,  make  ingenious  issues  with  illustrations ;  but 
so  you  can  with  everything  else.  They  are  liable  to 
misuse,  but  no  more  than  any  other  instrument  of  per- 
suasion. If  a  man  knows  truth  and  loves  it,  if  he  is 
earnest  in  the  inculcation  of  it,  and  if  he  never  allows 
himself  to  state  for  truth  that  which  he  does  not 
thoroughly  believe  to  be  true,  the  processes  which 
he  employs,  whether  analogies,  causal  reasoning,  or 
illustrations  the  most  poetical,  will  participate  in  the 
honesty  of  the  man ;  and  there  is  little  risk  that  any 
one  part  will  be  mistaken  more  than  any  other. 

THE  NATURE  OF  ILLUSTRATION. 

We  have  the  best  example  of  the  use  of  illustration 
in  the  history  of  the  education  of  the  world  from  time 
immemorial  Experience  has  taught  that  not  only  are 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  155 

persons  pleased  by  being  instructed  through  illustra- 
tion, but  that  they  are  more  readily  instructed  thus,  be- 
cause, substantially,  the  mode  in  which  we  learn  a  new 
thing  is  by  its  being  likened  to  something  which  we 
already  know.  This  is  the  principle  underlying  all  true 
illustrations.  They  are  a  kind  of  covert  analogy,  or 
likening  of  one  thing  to  another,  so  that  obscure  things 
become  plain,  being  represented  pictorially  or  other- 
wise by  things  that  are  not  obscure  and  that  we  are 
familiar  with.  So,  then,  the  groundwork  of  all  illus- 
tration is  the  familiarity  of  your  audience  with  the 
thing  on  which  the  illustration  stands.  Xow  and  then 
it  will  be  proper  to  lay  down  and  explain  with  partic- 
ularity the  fact  out  of  which  an  illustration  is  to  grow, 
and  then  to  make  the  fact  illustrate  the  truth  to  be 
made  clear.  The  speaker  will,  for  instance,  undertake 
to  explain  the  isochronism  of  a  watch,  and  having 
done  this  so  that  the  audience  will  understand  it,  he 
may  employ  the  watch  in  that  regard  as  an  illustration. 
But,  generally,  the  subject-matter  of  an  illustration 
should  be  that  which  is  familiar  to  the  minds  of  those 
to  whom  you  are  speaking. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  go  into  the  theoretical  na- 
ture of  the  different  kinds  of  illustration,  of  metaphors, 
similes,  and  what  not ;  that  you  have  learned  in  another 
department,  both  in  your  academical  and  collegiate 
courses.  But  I  hope  to  give  you  some  practical  hints 
as  to  the  manner  of  using  these  things. 

REASONS   FOR   ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   PREACHING. 

The  purpose  that  we  have  in  view  in  employing  an 
illustration  is  to  help  people  to  understand  more  easily 


156  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

the  things  that  we  are  teaching  them.  You  ought  to 
drive  an  audience  as  a  good  horseman  drives  a  horse 
on  a  journey,  not  with  a  supreme  regard  for  himself, 
but  in  a  way  that  will  enahle  the  horse  to  achieve  his 
work  in  the  easiest  way.  An  audience  has  a  long  and 
sometimes  an  arduous  journey  when  you  are  preaching. 
Occasionally  the  way  is  pretty  steep  and  rough ;  and  it 
is  the  minister's  business,  not  so  much  to  take  care  of 
himself,  as,  by  all  the  means  in  his  power,  to  ease  the 
way  for  his  audience  and  facilitate  their  understanding. 
An  illustration  is  one  of  the  means  by  which  the  truth 
that  you  teach  to  men  is  made  so  facile  that  they  re- 
ceive it  without  effort.  I  know  that  some  men  —  among 
whom,  I  think,  was  Coleridge — justify  the  obscurities 
of  their  style,  saying  that  it  is  a  good  practice  for  men 
to  be  obliged  to  dig  for  the  ideas  which  they  get.  But 
I  submit  to  you  that  working  on  Sunday  is  not  proper 
for  ordinary  people  in  church,  and  obliging  your  parish- 
ioners to  dig  and  delve  for  ideas  in  your  sermons  is 
making  them  do  the  very  work  you  are  paid  a  salary  to 
do  for  them.  Your  office  is  to  do  the  chief  part  of  the 
thinking  and  to  arrange  the  truth,  while  their  part  is  to 
experience  the  motive-power,  and  take  the  incitement 
toward  a  better  life.  In  this  work,  whatever  can  make 
your  speech  touch  various  parts  of  the  mind  in  turn 
will  be  of  great  advantage  to  your  audience,  and  will 
enable  them  to  perform  their  rugged  journey  with  less 
fatigue  and  with  more  pleasure.  An  illustration  is 
never  to  be  a  mere  ornament,  although  its  being  orna- 
mental is  no  objection  to  it.  If  a  man's  sermon  is  like 
a  boiled  ham,  and  the  illustrations  are  like  cloves  stuck 
in  it  afterward  to  make  it  look  a  little  better,  or  like  a 


RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.  157 

bit  of  celery  or  other  garnish  laid  around  on  the  edge 
for  the  mere  delectation  of  the  eye,  it  is  contemptible. 
But  if  you  have  a  real  and  good  use  for  an  illustration, 
that  has  a  real  and  direct  relation  to  the  end  you  are 
seeking,  then  it  may  be  ornamental,  and  no  fault  should 
be  found  with  it  for  that. 


THEY  ASSIST  ARGUMENT. 

Look  a  little  at  the  result  to  be  accomplished  by 
facile  and  skillful  illustrations.  In  the  first  place,  they 
are  helpful  in  all  that  part  of  preaching  which  is  natu- 
rally based  upon  pure  reasoning,  and  which  is  some- 
what obscure  to  minds  not  trained  in  philosophical 
thought.  There  ought  to  be  in  every  sermon  something 
that  shall  task  your  audience  somewhat  as  it  tasked 
you;  otherwise  you  will  not  compass  some  of  the 
noblest  themes  that  lie  in  the  sphere  of  your  duty. 
But  pure  ratiocination  addresses  itself  to  but  a  very 
small  class  of  the  community.  There  are  very  few 
men  who  can  follow  a  close  argument  from  beginning 
to  end  ;  and  those  who  can  are  trained  to  it,  it  being  an 
artificial  habit,  though,  of  course,  some  minds  are  more 
apt  for  it  than  others.  But  the  theme  must  be  very 
familiar,  and  the  argument  must  be  largely  a  statement 
of  facts,  for  most  audiences  to  understand  it.  If  you 
go  one  step  beyond  this,  into  philosophy  or  meta- 
physics, so  called,  as  you  must  do  sometimes,  you  will 
be  in  danger  of  leaving  half  your  audience  behind  you. 

Illustrations,  while  they  make  it  easier  for  all,  are 
absolutely  the  only  means  by  which  a  large  part  of 
your  audience  will  be  able  to  understand  at  all  the 


158          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

abstruse  processes  of  reasoning.  For  a  good,  compact 
argument,  without  illustrations,  is  very  much  like  the 
old-fashioned  towers  that  used  to  be  built  before  artil- 
lery was  invented ;  they  were  built  strong,  of  stone,  all 
the  way  up  above  a  ladder's  reach  without  a  door  or  a 
window-slit.  The  first  apartment  was  so  high  that  it 
was  safe  from  scaling,  and  then  came  a  few  windows, 
and  very  narrow  ones  at  that.  Such  were  good  places 
for  beleaguered  men,  but  they  were  very  poor  places  to 
bring  up  a  family  in,  where  there  were  no  windows  to 
let  in  the  light. 

Now  an  illustration  is  a  window  in  an  argument, 
and  lets  in  light.  You  may  reason  without  an  illustra- 
tion; but  where  you  are  employing  a  process  of  pure 
reasoning  and  have  arrived  at  a  conclusion,  if  you  can 
then  by  an  illustration  flash  back  light  upon  what  you 
have  said,  you  will  bring  into  the  minds  of  your  au- 
dience a  realization  of  your  argument  that  they  cannot 
get  in  any  other  way.  I  have  seen  an  audience,  time 
and  again,  follow  an  argument,  doubtfully,  laboriously, 
almost  suspiciously,  and  look  at  one  another,  as  much 
as  to  say,  "  Is  he  going  right  ? "  —  until  the  place  is 
arrived  at,  where  the  speaker  says,  "It  is  like  — "  and 
then  they  listen  eagerly  for  what  it  is  like ;  and  when 
some  apt  illustration  is  thrown  out  before  them,  there 
is  a  sense  of  relief,  as  though  they  said,  "Yes,  he  is 
right."  If  you  have  cheated  them,  so  much  the  worse 
for  you ;  but  if  your  illustrations  are  as  true  as  your 
argument,  and  your  argument  true  as  the  truth  itself, 
then  you  have  helped  them  a  great  deal.  So  that,  as  a 
mere  matter  of  help  to  reason,  illustrations  are  of  vast 
utility  in  speaking  to  an  audience. 


RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.  159 

THEY  HELP   HEARERS   TO   REMEMBER. 

Then  they  are  a  very  great  help  in  carrying  away 
and  remembering  the  things  your  audience  have  heard 
from  you ;  because  it  is  true  from  childhood  up  (and 
woe  be  to  that  man  out  of  whom  the  child  has  died 
entirely ! )  that  we  remember  pictures  and  parables  and 
fables  and  stories.  Now,  if  in  your  discourses,  when 
taking  a  comprehensive  view  of  truth,  you  illustrate 
each  step  by  an  appropriate  picture,  you  will  find  that 
the  plain  people  of  your  congregation  will  go  a\vay, 
remembering  every  one  of  your  illustrations.  If  they 
are  asked,  "Well,  what  was  the  illustration  for?"  they 
will  stop  and  consider :  "  What  was  he  saying  then  ? " 
They  will  fish  for  it,  and  will  generally  get  the  sub- 
stance of  it.  "  0,  it  was  this  ;  he  was  proving  so  and 
so,  and  then  he  illustrated  it  by  this."  They  will 
remember  the  picture  ;  and,  if  they  are  questioned,  the 
picture  will  bring  back  the  truth  to  them;  and  after 
that  they  will  remember  both  together.  Whereas  all 
except  the  few  logically  trained  minds  wrould  very  soon 
have  forgotten  what  you  had  discoursed  upon,  if  you 
had  not  thus  suitably  seasoned  it. 

Your  illustrations  will  be  the  salt  that  will  preserve 
your  teachings,  and  men  will  remember  them. 

THEY   STIMULATE  IMAGINATION. 

The  effect  of  illustrations  upon  ideality  is  very  great. 
They  bring  into  play  the  imaginative  faculty,  which  is 
only  another  name  for  ideality.  The  sense  of  the  in- 
visible and  of  the  beautiful  are  combined  in  ideality. 
Now  all  great  truth  is  beautiful.  It  carries  in  it  ele- 


160          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

ments  of  taste  and  fitness.  The  "  beauty  of  holiness  " 
we  find  spoken  of  in  the  "Word  of  God,  and  this  is  a 
beauty  that  does  not  belong  to  anything  material.  God 
is  transcendently  a  lover  of  beauty,  and  all  the  issues 
of  the  Divine  Soul  are,  if  we  could  see  them  as  he 
sees  them,  beautiful,  just  as  self-denial  and  love  are 
beautiful,  and  as  purity  and  truth  and  all  good  things 
are  beautiful. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  in  the  interest  of  truth  that  a 
man  should  sift  it  down  to  the  merest  bare  nuggets  of 
statement  that  it  is  susceptible  of ;  and  this  is  not  best 
for  an  audience.  It  is  best  that  a  truth  should  have 
argument  to  substantiate  it,  and  analysis  and  close 
reasoning ;  yet  when  you  come  to  give  it  to  an  audi- 
ence you  should  clothe  it  with  flesh,  so  that  it  shall  be 
fit  for  their  understandings.  In  no  other  way  can  you 
so  stir  up  that  side  of  the  inind  to  grasp  your  state- 
ments and  arguments  easily,  and  prepare  it  to  remember 
them.  You  cannot  help  your  audience  in  any  other 
way  so  well  as  by  keeping  alive  in  them  the  sense  of 
the  imagination,  and  making  the  truth  palpable  to 
them,  because  it  is  appealing  to  the  taste,  to  the  sense 
of  the  beautiful  in  imagery  as  well  as  to  the  sense  of 
truth. 

THE   ART   OF   RESTING   AUDIENCES. 

It  is  a  great  art  to  know  how  to  preach  as  long  as 
you  want  to,  or  have  to,  and  yet  not  tire  your  audience, 
especially  where  you  have  been  preaching  many  years 
in  the  same  place.  For  my  own  part  I  do  not  think 
that  a  very  long  sermon  is  adapted  to  edificatioil ;  but 
a  man  ought  to  be  able  to  preach  an  hour,  and  to  hold 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  161 

his  audience  too.  He  cannot  do  it,  however,  if  his 
sermon  is  a  monotone,  either  in  voice  or  thought.  He 
cannot  do  it  unless  he  is  interesting.  He  cannot 
possibly  hold  his  people  unwearied,  when  they  have 
become  accustomed  to  his  voice,  his  manner,  and  his 
thoughts,  unless  he  moves  through  a  very  considerable 
scale,  up  and  down,  resting  them ;  in  other  words, 
changing  the  faculties  that  he  is  addressing.  For  in- 
stance, you  are  at  one  time,  by  statements  of  fact, 
engaging  the  perceptive  reason,  as  a  phrenologist  would 
say.  You  soon  pass,  by  a  natural  transition,  to  the 
relations  that  exist  between  facts  and  statements,  and 
you  are  then  addressing  another  audience,  namely,  the 
reflective  faculties  of  your  people.  And  when  you 
have  concluded  an  argument  upon  that,  and  have 
flashed  an  illustration  that  touches  and  wakes  up  their 
fancy  and  imagination,  you  are  bringing  in  still  another 
audience,  —  the  ideal  or  imaginative  one.  And  now,  if 
out  of  these  you  express  a  sweet  wine  that  goes  to  the 
emotions  and  arouses  their  feelings,  so  that  one  and 
another  in  the  congregation  wipes  his  eyes,  and  the 
proud  man,  that  does  not  want  to  cry,  blows  his  nose, 
—  what  have  you  done  ?  You  have  relieved  the  weari- 
ness of  your  congregation  by  enabling  them  to  listen 
witli  different  parts  of  their  minds  to  what  you  have 
been  saying. 

If  I  were  to  stand  here  on  one  leg  for  ten  minutes,  I 
should  be  very  grateful  if  I  were  permitted  to  stand  on 
the  other  a  little  while.  If  I  stood  on  both  of  them, 
perfectly  erect,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  the  opportu- 
nity of  resting  more  heavily  on  one,  and  taking  an  easy 
position.  In  other  words,  there  is  nothing  that  tires  a 


162  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

man  so  much  as  standing  in  one  posture,  stock  still. 
By  preaching  to  different  parts  of  the  minds  of  your 
audience,  one  part  rests  the  others ;  and  persons  not 
M  varied  out  will  listen  to  long  sermons  and  think  them 
very  short.  It  is  a  good  thing  for  a  man  to  preach  an 
hour,  and  have  his  people  say,  "  Why,  you  ought  not 
to  have  stopped  for  an  hour  yet."  That  is  a  compli- 
ment that  you  will  not  get  every  day,  and  you  ought  to 
be  very  grateful  when  you  do  get  it. 

ILLUSTRATIONS   PROVIDE  FOR  VARIOUS   HEARERS. 

The  relation  of  illustrations  to  a  mixed  audience  is 
another  point  which  deserves  careful  consideration.  I 
have  known  ministers  who  always  unconsciously  sifted 
their  audience,  and  preached  to  nothing  but  the  bolted 
wheat.  Now,  you  have  got  a  little  fine  flour  in  your 
congregation,  and  more  poor  flour ;  then  you  have  the 
Graham  flour,  which  is  the  wheat  ground  up  husk 
and  all ;  and  then  you  have  all  the  unground  wheat, 
and  all  the  straw,  and  all  the  stubble.  You  are  just  as 
much  bound  to  take  care  of  the  bottom  as  you  are  of 
the  top.  True,  it  is  easier,  after  you  have  fallen  into 
the  habit  of  doing  it,  to  preach  to  those  people  who 
appreciate  your  better  efforts.  It  is  easier  for  you  to 
preach  so  that  the  household  of  cultured  and  refined 
people  will  love  to  sit  down  and  talk  witli  you  on  this 
subtle  feeling,  and  about  that  wonderful  idea  you  got 
from  the  German  poet,  and  so  on.  But  that  is  self-in- 
dulgence, half  the  time,  on  the  part  of  a  pastor.  He 
follows  the  path  that  he  likes,  trie  one  in  which  he  ex- 
cels, and  he  is  not  thinking  of  providing  for  the  great 
masses  that  are  under  his  care. 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  163 

You  are  bound  to  see  that  everybody  gets  something 
every  time.  There  ought  not  to  be  a  five-year-old  child 
that  shall  go  home  without  something  that  pleases  and 
instructs  him. 

How  are  you  going  to  do  that  ?  I  know  of  no  other 
way  than  by  illustration. 

I  have  around  my  pulpit,  and  sometimes  crowding 
upon  the  platform,  a  good  many  of  the  boys  and  girls 
of  the  congregation.  I  notice  that,  during  the  general 
statements  of  the  sermon  and  the  exegetical  parts  of 
it,  introducing  the  main  discourse,  the  children  are 
playing  with  each  other.  One  will  push  a  hymn-book 
or  a  hat  toward  the  other,  and  they  will  set  each  other 
laughing.  That  which  ought  not  to  be  done  is,  with 
children,  very  funny  and  amusing.  By  and  by  I  have 
occasion  to  use  an  illustration,  and  I  happen  to  turn 
round  and  look  at  the  children,  and  not  one  of  them  is 
playing,  but  they  are  all  looking  up  with  interest  de- 
picted on  their  faces.  I  did  not  think  of  them  in 
making  it,  perhaps,  but  I  saw,  when  the  food  fell  out  in 
that  way,  that  even  the  children  were  fed  too.  You  will 
observe  that  the  children  in  the  congregation  will 
usually  know  perfectly  well  whether  there  is  anything 
in  the  sermon  for  them  or  not.  There  always  ought  to 
be,  and  there  is  no  way  in  which  you  can  prepare  a 
sermon  for  the  delectation  of  the  plain  people,  and  the 
uncultured,  and  little  children,  better  than  by  making 
it  attractive  and  instructive  with  illustrations.  It  is  al- 
ways the  best  method  to  adopt  with  a  mixed  audience. 

And  that  is  the  kind  of  audience  for  which  you  must 
prepare  yourselves,  too.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that  a 
man  preaches  in  a  college  chapel,  where  all  are  students. 


164          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

You  are  going  into  parishes  where  there  are  old  and 
young  and  middle-aged  people,  where  there  are  work- 
ing men  and  men  of  leisure,  dull  men  and  sharp  men, 
practiced  worldlings,  and  spiritual  and  guileless  men ; 
in  lact,  all  sorts  of  people.  And  you  are  to  preach  so 
that  every  man  shall  have  his  portion  in  due  season, 
and  that  portion  ought  to  be  in  every  sermon,  more  or 
less.  You  will  scarcely  be  able  to  do  it  in  any  other 
way  than  by  illustration.  If  God  has  not  given  you 
the  gift  by  original  endowment,  strive  to  attain  it  by 
cultivation. 

MODES   OF  PRESENTING  ARGUMENT. 

Then  there  is  another  thing.  You  are  to  carry  the 
thoughts  in  your  sermon  as  the  air  or  theme  is  carried 
in  some  musical  compositions.  Certain  of  the  finest 
chorals  will  have  the  air  carried  throughout,  sometimes 
by  the  soprano,  sometimes  by  the  contralto,  sometimes 
by  the  tenor,  and  sometimes  by  the  bass.  So  with  your 
argument ;  it  must  be  borne  by  different  parts  of  your 
sermon.  Sometimes  it  must  be  put  forward  by  an 
illustration,  sometimes  by  an  appeal  to  the  feelings, 
sometimes  by  a  process  of  reasoning,  and  sometimes 
by  the  imagination.  Your  argument  is  not  to  be  all 
one  stereotyped  expression  of  thought. 

Frequently  a  speaker  will  make  a  statement,  and 
then  laboriously  lay  out  the  track  from  that  statement 
clear  over  to  the  next  point,  thus  using  up  precious 
time.  But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  striking  at  once  to 
a  man's  conscience  t>y  bounding  over  the  whole  logical 
process,  abbreviating  both  space  and  time,  and  gaining 
conviction. 


RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.  165 

"What  do  you  want  ?  You  do  not  want  an  argument 
for  the  sake  of  an  argument.  You  do  not  want  a  ser- 
mon that  is  as  perfect  a  machine  as  a  machine  can  be, 
unless  it  docs  something.  You  want  the  people ;  and 
the  shortest  and  surest  way  to  get  them  is  the  best  way. 
"When  you  are  preaching  a  sermon  which  has  been  pre- 
pared with  a  great  deal  of  care,  and  are  laying  down 
the  truth  with  forcible  arguments,  you  will  often  find 
that  you  are  losing  your  hold  on  the  attention  of  your 
people  by  continuing  in  that  direction.  But  coming 
to  a  fortunate  point,  strike  out  an  illustration  which 
arouses  and  interests  them,  —  leave  the  track  of  your 
argument,  and  never  mind  what  becomes  of  your  elab- 
orate sermon,  and  you  will  see  the  heavy  and  uninter- 
ested eyes  lighting  up  again.  "But,"  you  say,  "that 
will  make  my  sermon  unsymmetrical."  "Well,  were 
you  called  to  preach  for  the  sake  of  the  salvation  of 
sermons  ?  Just  follow  the  stream,  and  use  the  bait 
they  are  biting  at,  and  take  no  heed  of  your  sermon. 

You  will  find  it  almost  impossible  to  carry  forward 
the  demonstration  of  a  truth  in  one  straight  course  and 
yet  make  it  real  to  a  general  audience.  You  must  vary 
your  method  constantly,  and  at  the  same  time  through 
it  all  you  can  carry  the  burden  of  your  discourse  so 
that  it  shall  be  made  clear  to  the  whole  of  your 
audience.  An  argument  may  as  well  go  forward  by 
illustration  as  by  abstract  statement;  sometimes  it 
will  go  better. 

ILLUSTRATIONS    BRIDGE    DIFFICULT  PLACES. 

Then  there  is  another  element  for  you  to  consider. 
Illustrations  are  invisible  tactics.  A  minister  often 


1G6          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

hovers  between  the  "ought  to  do,"  and  the  "how  to 
do."  He  knows  there  is  a  subject  that  ought  to  be 
preached  about;  and  yet,  if  he  should  deliberately 
preach  on  that  topic,  everybody  would  turn  around  and 
look  at  Mr.  A.,  who  is  the  very  embodiment  of  that 
special  vice  or  fault  or  excellence. 

There  are  many  very  important  themes  which  a  min- 
ister may  not  desire  to  preach  openly  upon,  for  various 
reasons,  especially  if  he  wish  to  remain  in  the  parish. 
But  there  are  times  when  you  can  attain  your  object 
by  an  illustration  pointed  at  the  topic,  without  indicat- 
ing whom  you  are  hitting,  but  continuing  your  sermon 
as  though  you  were  utterly  unconscious  of  the  effect 
of  your  blow. 

When  I  was  settled  at  Indianapolis,  nobody  was  al- 
lowed to  say  a  word  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  They 
were  all  red-hot  out  there  then ;  and  one  of  the  Elders 
said,  "  If  an  abolitionist  comes  here,  I  will  head  a  mob 
to  put  him  down."  I  was  a  young  preacher.  I  had 
some  pluck ;  and  I  felt,  and  it  grew  in  me,  that  that 
was  a  subject  that  ought  to  be  preached  upon  ;  but  I 
knew  that  just  as  sure  as  I  preached  an  abolition  ser- 
mon they  would  blow  me  up  sky  high,  and  my  useful- 
ness in  that  parish  would  be  gone.  Yet  I  was  deter- 
mined they  should  hear  it,  first  or  last.  The  question 
was,  "  How  shall  I  do  it  ?  "  I  recollect  one  of  the  ear- 
liest efforts  I  made  in  that  direction  was  in  a  sermon 
on  some  general  topic.  It  was  necessary  to  illustrate 
a  point,  and  I  did  it  by  picturing  a  father  ransoming  his 
son  from  captivity  among  the  Algerines,  and  glorying 
in  his  love  of  liberty  and  his  fight  against  bondage. 
They  all  thought  I  was  going  to  apply  it  to  slavery,  but 


RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.  167 

I  did  not.  I  applied  it  to  my  subject,  and  it  passed 
off ;  and  they  all  drew  a  long  breath. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  had  another  illustration 
from  that  quarter.  And  so,  before  I  had  been  there  a 
year,  I  had  gone  over  all  the  sore  spots  of  slavery,  in 
illustrating  the  subjects  of  Christian  experience  and 
doctrine.  It  broke  the  ice. 

You  may  say  that  that  was  not  the  most  honorable 
way,  and  that  it  was  a  weakness.  It  may  have  been 
so ;  but  I  conquered  them  by  that  very  weakness. 

If  you  find  that  it  is  necessary  to  do  a  thing,  make 
up  your  mind  to  do  it.  If  you  cannot  accomplish  it  in 
the  very  best  way,  do  it  by  the  next  best,  and  so  on  ; 
but  see  to  it  that  it  is  done  by  the  best  means  at  your 
command.  Go  to  the  bottom  of  it,  and  work  at  it  until 
you  attain  the  desired  result. 

Thus,  in  using  an  illustration  pointed  at  a  certain 
fault  or  weakness  among  your  people,  as  I  have  done 
a  thousand  times  (and  I  speak  within  bounds),  never 
let  it  be  known  that  you  are  aiming  at  any  particular 
individual.  Sometimes  a  person  will  say  to  me,  "  There 
is  great  distress  in  such  a  family,  and  they  will  be  in 
your  church ;  can't  you  say  something  that  will  be 
useful  to  them?"  If  I  were  to  bring  that  case 
right  before  the  congregation,  in  all  its  personal  details, 
it  would  scandalize  the  church,  and  repel  the  very 
people  whom  I  wanted  to  help.  But  suppose,  while  I 
am  preaching,  I  imagine  a  case  of  difference  between 
husband  and  wife,  who  are,  perhaps,  hard,  suspicious, 
and  unforgiving  toward  each  other,  and  I  take  the 
subject  of  God's  forgiveness,  and  illustrate  it  by  the 
conduct  of  two  couples,  one  of  which  stands  on  a  high 


1G8          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  noble  plane,  and  the  other  on  a  low,  selfish  plane. 
They  do  not  suppose  that  I  know  anything  about  their 
difficulty,  because,  when  I  am  hitting  a  man  with  an 
illustration,  I  never  look  at  him.  But  such  a  man  or 
woman  will  go  home,  and  say, "  Why,  if  somebody  had 
been"  telling  him  of  my  case,  he  could  not  have  hit  it 
more  exactly."  They  take  it  to  heart,  and  it  is  blessed 
unto  them.  I  have  seen  multitudes  of  such  cases. 

You  may  go  down  to  the  brook  under  the  willows 
and  angle  for  the  trout  that  everybody  has  been  trying 
to  catch,  but  in  vain.  You  go  splashing  and  tearing 
along,  throwing  in  your  pole,  line  and  all.  Do  you 
think  you  can  catch  him  that  way  ?  No,  indeed  ;  you 
must  begin  afar  off  and  quietly;  if  need  be,  drawing 
yourself  along  on  the  grass,  and  perhaps,  even  on  your 
belly,  until  you  come  where  through  the  quivering 
leaves  you  see  the  flash  of  the  sun,  and  then  slowly 
and  gently  you  throw  your  line  around,  so  that  the 
fly  on  its  end  falls  as  light  as  a  gossamer  upon  the 
placid  surface  of  the  brook.  The  trout  will  think, 
"That  is  not  a  bait  thrown  to  catch  me;  there  is 
nobody  there,"  and  he  rises  to  the  fly,  takes  it,  and  you 
take  him. 

So  there  are  thousands  of  persons  in  the  world  that 
you  will  take  if  they  do  not  know  that  you  are  after 
them,  but  whom  you  could  not  touch  if  they  suspected 
your  purpose.  Illustrations  are  invaluable  for  this 
kind  of  work,  and  there  is  nothing  half  so  effective. 

THEY  EDUCATE   THE  PEOPLE. 

I  notice  that  in  a  prayer-meeting  which  has  grown 
up  under  a  minister  who  illustrates,  all  the  members  of 


RHETOKICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


the  church  illustrate  too.  .  They  all  begin  to  see  visions, 
and  to  catch  likenesses  and  resemblances.  This  becomes 
a  habit,  and  it  is  to  them  a  pathfinder  or  a  starfinder, 
as  it  were.  It  leads  men  to  look  at  truth,  not  only  in 
one  aspect,  but  in  all  its  bearings,  and  to  make  analo- 
gies and  illustrations  for  themselves,  and  thus  brings 
them  into  the  truth.  By  this  means  you  bring  up  your 
congregation  to  understand  the  truth  more  easily  than 
you  would  by  any  other  method. 

NECESSITY   OF  VARIETY. 

But  to  continue  illustrations  for  any  considerable 
time  you  must  draw  them  from  various  sources.  To 
do  this  you  must  study  the  natural  world,  the  different 
phases  of  human  society,  and  the  life  of  the  household, 
in  moral  colors.  These  are  inexhaustible  sources  from 
which  to  draw  the  needful  instruction. 

If  you  are  preaching  to  pedants,  you  may  properly 
enough  illustrate  by  the  ancient  classics  ;  but  if  you 
are  preaching  to  common  people  you  must  not  confine 
yourself  to  that  course,  although  it  is  allowable,  once 
in  a  while,  to  use  some  illustration  drawn  from  the 
heroes  of  ancient  history  and  mythology.  But  what 
may  be  called  scholarly  illustrations  are  not  generally 
good  for  the  common  people.  They  may  serve  to  im- 
press the  more  ignorant  with  a  sense  of  your  knowl- 
edge, but  that  is  not  what  you  are  called  to  preach  for. 
That  would  be  a  poor  business. 

In  the  development  of  this  faculty  of  illustration  it 
is  necessary  to  know  the  philosophy  of  it.  All  illus- 
trations, to  be  apt,  should  touch  your  people  where  their 
level  is.  I  do  not  know  that  this  art  can  be  learned  ; 

8 


170  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

but  I  may  suggest  that  it  is  a  good  thing,  in  looking 
over  an  audience,  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  seeing  illus- 
trations in  them.  If  I  see  a  seaman  sitting  among  my 
audience,  I  do  not  say  "  I  will  use  him  as  a  figure,"  arid 
apply  it  personally;  but  out  of  Mm  jumps  an  illus- 
tration from  the  sea,  and  it  comes  to  seek  me  out.  If 
there  be  a  watchmaker  present  that  I  happen  to  recog- 
nize, my  next  illustration  will  very  likely  be  from 
horology ;  though  he  will  be  utterly  unconscious  of  the 
use  I  have  made  of  him.  Then  I  see  a  school-mistress, 
and  my  next  illustration  will  be  out  of  school-teaching. 
Thus,  where  your  audience  is  known  to  you,  the  illus- 
tration ought  not  simply  to  meet  your  wants  as  a 
speaker,  but  it  should  meet  the  wants  of  your  congrega- 
tion, it  should  be  a  help  to  them. 

HOMELY  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

You  must  not  be  afraid  to  illustrate  truths  in  an  un- 
dignified manner.  Young  gentlemen,  where  you  can- 
not help  yourselves,  you  have  a  right  to  be  dignified ; 
but  this  cant  and  talk  about  dignity  is  the  most  shabby 
and  miserable  pretense  of  pride  and  of  an  artificial 
culture.  There  is  nothing  so  dignified  as  a  man  in 
earnest.  It  is  that  which  approves  itself  to  the  moral 
consciousness  of  every  hearer.  If,  besides  that,  you 
are  naturally  graceful  and  handsome,  and  your  thoughts 
flow  in  a  certain  high  order,  so  much  the  better ;  but 
if  they  do  not,  and  you  assume  the  pretense  of  it,  and 
put  on  the  mask  of  these  things  without  having  -the 
inward  soul,  you  are  base. 

Now,  in  respect  to  truth,  do  not  be  ashamed  to  ex- 
plain it  by  homely  illustrations.  Do  not  be  ashamed 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  171 

to  talk  to  tlie  miller  about  his  mill,  or  to  tbe  plowman 
about  bis  plow,  and  about  the  grubs  tbat  are  under  it, 
and  about  every  part  of  it.  If  you  are  going  to  be  a 
master  in  your  business,  you  must  know  about  all  these 
things  yourself.  Having  eyes,  you  must  see;  having 
ear?,  you  must  hear ;  and  having  a  heart,  you  must 
understand.  A  minister  ought  to  be  the  best  informed 
man  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  He  ought  to  see  every- 
thing, inquire  about  everything,  and  be  interested  in 
everything.  You  may  ask,  "  Shall  I  treasure  up  illus- 
trations 1 "  Yes ;  if  that  is  your  way,  you  may  do  so  ; 
if  not,  you  will  very  soon  find  it  out.  You  must  know 
what  is  the  best  method  for  yourself.  You  cannot 
pattern  on  anybody  else.  Imitations  are  always  poor 
stuff.  You  must  find  out  the  tiling  meant  for  you, 
and  then  do  the  best  you  can.  You  must  be  faithful 
in  the  place  where  God  put  you,  and  for  which  you  are 
equipped.  A  minister  is  not  a  man  to  know  books 
alone.  He  must  know  books,  and  study  them  pro- 
foundly. You  must  be  conversant  with  the  thoughts 
and  deeds  of  the  noble  minds  of  every  age  of  the 
world.  There  is  much  for  you  in  history  and  in  libra- 
ries, in  the  discourse  of  your  equals,  in  the  conversa- 
tion of  scholarly  men.  But  this  fact  ought  you  not  to 
overlook  nor  to  neglect,  that  you  are  God's  shepherds, 
for  the  sheep  and  for  the  lambs  as  well.  You  ought  to 
know  about  the  woman's  spinning-wheel,  about  the 
weaver's  loom  and  every  part  of  it.  You  ought  to 
know  about  the  gardener's  thoughts,  his  ambitions  and 
feelings.  You-  ought  to  know  what  is  done  in  the  barn, 
in  the  cellar,  in  the  vineyard,  and  everywhere.  Yoii 
ought  to  know  and  understand  a  naturalist's  enthusiasm 


172          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

when  he  finds  a  new  flower  or  a  new  bug,  —  that  ecstasy 
is  almost  like  a  heaven  of  heavens  to  the  apocalyptic 
John !  You  must  study  men,  women,  and  children, 
their  weaknesses  and  their  strong  sides.  You  must 
live  among  men,  and  be  sentient  and  conscious  of  what 
they  are,  and  what  they  think  about.  And  when  you 
come  to  preach,  it  is  for  you  to  draw  an  illustration  in 
the  range  where  your  hearers  live,  whether  it  be  high 
or  low;  and  you  must  change  them  continually,  pro- 
viding now  for  some,  and  now  for  others.  But  they 
must  always  be  on  a  level  with  your  audience,  so  that 
they  will  surge  back  and  draw  your  hearers  to  you. 

You  must  bring  people  to  yourself,  and  not  wait  for 
them  to  come.  As  well  might  a  new  bucket  of  white 
oak,  newly  hooped,  —  the  very  best  bucket  to  be  had, — 
expect  that  water  shall  come  up  from  the  well  to  its 
level,  while  it  simply  hangs  over  the  well-curb;  it 
must  go  down  to  the  water  and  bring  it  up.  You 
must  go  down  to  your  people.  There  must  be  a  place 
where  your  yarn  is  joined  on  to  their  yarn,  and  it  must 
be  joined  in  one  common  thread. 

ILLUSTRATIONS   MUST  BE  APT. 

Let  me  say  to  you,  that,  in  using  illustrations,  you 
must  be  sure  to  make  them  always  apposite.  If  you 
should  undertake  to  "  work  ship  "  in  an  audience  where 
there  is  a  good  old  sea-captain,  and  you  should  make  a 
mistake,  and  speak  as  though  you  thought  the  taffrail 
was  the  rudder,  he  would  feel  contempt  for  you.  If  I 
should  hear  a  politician  say  that  Job  said,  "  Every  tub 
must  stand  upon  its  own  bottom,"  I  should  laugh  at 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  173 

him,  and  his  illustration  and  quotation  would  not  do 
me  much  good.  When  you  are  talking  about  matters 
that  men  know  about,  you  must  know  just  as  much  as 
they  do.  Xever  let  a  man  in  your  congregation  detect 
you  in  an  inaccuracy  if  you  can  help  it.  If  you  speak 
about  making  wine,  be  sure  you  know  about  making  it. 
(To  do  that,  it  is  not  necessary  that  you  should  know 
how  to  drink  it,  however  !) 
Therefore,  always  be  learning. 

HOW  TO    GET   INFORMATION. 

There  are  two  points  about  learning.  In  the  first 
place,  never  ask  a  question,  if  you  can  help  it ;  and 
secondly,  never  let  a  thing  go  unknown  for  the  lack  of 
asking  a  question,  if  you  cannot  help  it.  Think  it  out 
first.  Dig  it  out,  study  it,  go  around  it,  question 
yourself,  and  get  it  out.  If  you  really  cannot,  therv 
turn  and  ask  somebody.  See  everything,  and  see  it 
right,  and  use  it  as  you  go  along. 

A  man's  study  should  be  everywhere,  —  in  the  house, 
in  the  street,  in  the  fields,  and  in  the  busy  haunts  of 
men.  You  see  a  bevy  of  children  in  the  window,  and 
you  can  form  them  into  a  picture  in  your  mind.  You 
may  see  the  nurse,  and  the  way  she  is  dressed.  You 
try  to  describe  it.  You  look  again,  and  make  your- 
self master  of  the  details.  By  and  by  it  will  come  up 
to  you  again  itself,  and  you  will  be  able  to  make  an 
accurate  picture  of  it,  having  made  your  observation 
accurate.  Little  by  little,  this  habit  will  grow,  until 
by  and  by,  in  later  life,  you  will  find  that  you  command 
respect  by  your  illustrations  just  as  much  as  by  argu- 
ments and  analogies. 


174  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

ILLUSTRATIONS   MUST   BE  PROMPT. 

Then,  again,  while  elaborate  allegories  and  fables  are 
very  good  things,  and  may  be  used  with  discretion, 
illustrations,  so  called,  ought  always  to  be  clean,  accu- 
rate, and  quick.  Do  not  let  them  dawdle  on  your 
hands.  There  is  nothing  that  tires  an  audience  so 
much  as  when  they  have  to  think  faster  than  you  do. 
You  have  got  to  keep  ahead  of  them.  Do  you  know 
what  it  is  to  walk  behind  slow  people  and  tread  on 
their  heels  ?  How  it  tires  and  vexes  one  !  You  know 
how  people  are  vexed  with  a  preacher  who  is  slow  and 
dilatory,  and  does  not  get  along.  He  tires  people  out, 
for  though  he  may  have  only  six  or  seven  words  of  his 
sentence  completed,  they  know  the  whole  of  it;  and 
what  is  the  use,  then,  of  his  uttering  the  rest? 

With  illustrations,  there  should  be  energy  and  vigor 
in  their  delivery.  Let  them  come  with  a  crack,  as 
when  a  driver  would  stir  up  his  team.  The  horse  does 
not  know  anything  about  it  until  the  crack  of  the 
whip  comes.  So  with  an  illustration.  Make  it  sharp. 
Throw  it  out.  Let  it  come  better  and  better,  and  the 
best  at  the  last,  and  then  be  done  with  it. 

THE  HABIT   OF  ILLUSTRATING. 

In  regard  to  the  gift  of  illustrating,  and  the  educa- 
tion of  it,  it  is  the  same  as  with  all  other  things.  Some 
men  are  born  mathematicians ;  and  whatever  they  do, 
that  will  be  the  strongest  impulse  in  their  intellectual 
natures.  Other  men  are  a  little  less  endowed  in  that 
direction,  and  others  still  less ;  but  almost  everybody 
has  enough  of  the  arithmetical  faculty  on  which  to 


RHETORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.  175 

build  an  education.  It  is  so  also  in  poetry  and  in 
music.  You  are  educable. 

In  regard  to  illustration,  you  will  find  persons  who 
are  instinctively  given  to  it.  Many  of  you  will  find  it 
natural  to  you.  But  do  not  be  discouraged,  even  when 
it  is  natural,  if  you  do  not  at  once  succeed.  Why 
should  you  succeed  before  you  learn  the  rudiments  of 
your  art  ?  Why  should  you  be  able  to  run  before  you 
can  walk  ?  Practice  by  yourselves  to  imaginary  audi- 
ences ;  make  illustrations  and  use  them ;  train  your- 
selves to  it  If  once  or  twice  on  every  Sabbath  day 
you  can  make  a  fitting  illustration  and  see  that  you 
have  gained  ground  by  it,  take  courage,  and  you  will 
improve  day  by  day  and  year  by  year. 

I  can  say,  for  your  encouragement,  that  while  illus- 
trations are  as  natural  to  me  as  breathing,  I  use  fifty 
now  to  one  in  the  early  years  of  my  ministry.  For 
the  first  six  or  eight  years,  perhaps,  they  were  com- 
paratively few  and  far  apart.  But  I  developed  a  ten- 
dency that  was  latent  in  me,  and  educated  myself  in 
that  respect ;  and  that,  too,  by  study  and  practice,  by 
hard  thought,  and  by  a  great  many  trials,  both  with 
the  pen,  and  extemporaneously  by  myself,  when  I  was 
walking  here  and  there.  Whatever  I  have  gained  in 
that  direction  is  largely  the  result  of  education.  You 
need  not,  therefore,  be  discouraged  if  it  does  not  come 
to  you  immediately.  You  cannot  be  men  at  once  in 
these  things.  This  world  is  God's  anvil,  and  whatever 
is  fit  for  the  battle  has  been  beaten  out  on  that  anvil, 
and  it  has  felt  the  fire  before  it  has  felt  the  blow.  So 
that  whatever  you  would  get  in  this  world  that  is 
worth  having,  you  must  work  for.  Do  not  be  cast 


176          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

down.  Be  brave,  industrious,  disinterested,  simple, 
and  true-hearted.  Whatever  God  means  to  give  you 
for  your  usefulness  will  certainly  come  to  you. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  Do  you  think  the  use  of  these  encyclopaedias  of  illustra- 
tions is  honest? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Why  not  ? 

STUDENT.  —  Because  one  ought  to  make  his  illustrations  him- 
self, I  should  say. 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  That  is  purely  a  question  with  your- 
self. If  a  man  says  he  would  rather  take  the  pains 
and  time  to  work  out  his  illustrations  himself,  he  has 
a  perfect  right  to  do  so.  It  is  just  the  same  question 
that  comes  up  in  everything  else.  "Do  you  think  a 
man  ought  to  copy  pictures,  or  to  study  from  nature  ? " 
One  school  will  tell  you  one  thing,  and  another  school 
another  thing.  .  It  is  simply  a  matter  of  preference.  I 
should  not  borrow  my  illustrations  a  great  while  if  I 
could  help  it;  but  if  you  find  that  you  accomplish 
your  designs  in  preaching,  and  at  the  same  time 
improve  yourself  by  practicing  in  that  way,  it  is 
allowable. 

Q.  Is  it  best  to  give  your  illustrations  extemporaneously,  even 
when  the  sermon  is  written  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Yes,  and  no.  Sometimes  it  is,  and 
sometimes  it  is  not.  Some  of  your  carefully  written- 
out  illustrations  would  die  between  your  attempting 
to  remember  and  attempting  to  originate.  There  is 
nothing  worse  than  to  get  into  the  place  where  those 
two  processes  meet.  You  will  hear  a  person  say,  "  I 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  177 

have  either  to  read  my  sermons  or  else  make  brief 
notes  and  not  read  at  all."  The  difficulty  is  that  if  you 
have  your  notes  well  written  out  and  then  look  up 
from  them  and  undertake  to  extemporize,  you  will  he 
extemporizing,  as  it  were,  with  one  eye,  and  thinking 
of  what  is  in  your  notes  with  the  other;  so  that  you 
will  really  rest  on  neither,  but  go  down  between  the 
two  processes.  No  man  can  extemporize  until  he  cuts 
the  cord  that  holds  him  to  his  sermon.  You  cannot 
extemporize  while  you  are  thinking  of  anything  other 
than  the  impulse  which  is  carrying  you  on. 

Q.  Would  you  advocate  special  services  for  children,  at  times? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Yes.  It  is  a  very  excellent  plan 
indeed.  I  think  every  parish  should  have  a  periodical 
service  for  children.  Dr.  Storrs  has  had  a  regular 
series  of  discourses  for  his  children,  and  it  has  been 
one  of  the  most  excellent  features  of  his  ministry  in 
Brooklyn. 

Q.  About  how  much  poetry  is  necessary  to  spice  a  sermon  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Of  quotations  I  should  say,  gener- 
ally none.  Of  poetical  treatment  and  illustration,  it 
"  depends."  Poetry,  you  know,  is  not  a  thing  that  you 
can  measure  and  put  in  by  quantity.  If  your  theme 
suggests  illustrations  which  are  poetical,  take  and  use 
them;  but  to  determine  that  you  will  have  a  definite 
quantity  of  them  wTill  kill  inspiration  in  the  very  egg. 

Q.  Is  there  not  danger  of  getting  into  a  loose  way  of  sermon- 
izing, by  not  preparing  your  illustrations  beforehand,  but  just 
taking  them  as  they  strike  you  in  the  pulpit  ? 

MR.  BEECHER. —  Yes  ;  and  there  is  danger  of  getting 
into  too  severe  a  habit,  if  you  prepare  in  the  other  way. 
8*  t 


178  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

There  is  danger  any  way.  You  cannot  prepare  in  any 
way  so  that  you  can  say  to  yourself,  "  Now  I  am  sure 
of  success ;  I  need  not  give  myself  any  further  respon- 
sibility." For,  if  there  is  a  working-man  on  earth,  it  is 
the  man  who  undertakes  to  preach  continually  and 
steadily  to  an  ordinary  congregation.  Let  me  say  to 
you,  gentlemen,  never  be  frightened  because  you  have 
preached  a  bad  sermon ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  never, 
under  any  circumstances  whatever,  preach  a  bad  sermon 
on  purpose,  or  by  negligence  or  carelessness.  If  you 
are  not  in  a  good  condition  for  work,  if  you  are  sick, 
never  apologize,  but  do  the  best  you  can,  even  though 
knowing  you  are  doing  it  very  poorly.  That  is  not  a 
pleasant  experience,  as  I  can  bear  witness.  Preach  the 
best  you  can,  under  the  circumstances,  without  apology. 
If  you  are  preaching  to  but  six  people,  do  the  best 
thing  you  can  do.  Do  it  always  and  everywhere. 

Q.  Is  it  a  proper  thing  to  make  an  audience  laugh  by  an  illus- 
tration ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Never  turn  aside  from  a  laugh  any 
more  than  you  would  from  a  cry.  Go  ahead  on  your 
Master's  business,  and  do  it  well.  And  remember  this, 
that  every  faculty  in  you  was  placed  there  by  the  dear 
Lord  God  for  his  service.  Never  try  to  raise  a  laugh 
for  a  laugh's  sake,  or  to  make  men  merry  as  a  piece 
of  sensationalism,  when  you  are  preaching  on  solemn 
things.  That  is  allowable  at  a  picnic,  but  not  in  a 
pulpit  where  you  are  preaching  to  men  in  regard  to 
God  and  their  own  destiny.  But  if  mirth  comes  up 
naturally,  do  not  stifle  it ;  strike  that  chord,  and  par- 
ticularly if  you  want  to  make  an  audience  cry.  If  I 


RHETORICAL   ILLUSTRATIONS.  179 

can  make  them  laugh,  I  do  not  thank  anybody  for  the 
next  move ;  I  will  make  them  cry.  Did  you  ever  see 
a  woman  carrying  a  pan  of  milk  quite  full,  and  it  slops 
over  on  one  side,  that  it  did  not  immediately  slop  over 
on  the  other  also  ? 

Q.  If  a  man  "slops  over"  on  some  occasions,  is  he  not  liable 
to  "  slop  over  "  continually  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Not  long  in  one  place,  if  he  does  it 
continually.  If  you  take  the  liberty,  however,  from 
what  I  have  said,  to  quote  stale  jokes ;  if  you  make 
queer  turns  because  they  will  make  people  laugh,  and 
to  show  you  have  power  over  the  congregation,  you  will 
prove  yourselves  contemptible  fellows.  But  if,  when 
you  are  arguing  any  question,  the  thing  comes  upon 
you  so  that  you  see  a  point  in  a  ludicrous  light,  you 
can  sometimes  flash  it  at  your  audience,  and  accomplish 
at  a  stroke  what  you  were  seeking  to  do  by  a  long  train 
of  argument,  and  that  is  entirely  allowable.  In  such 
'a  case  do  not  attempt  to  suppress  laughter.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  nature  that  God  gave  us,  and  which  we 
can  use  in  his  service.  When  you  are  fighting  the 
Devil,  shoot  him  with  anything. 

Q.  Would  not  a  man,  under  such  circumstances,  be  in  danger 
of  overturning  just  what  he  was  trying  to  accomplish  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  No ;  unless  he  accompanies  it  very 
poorly. 

If  a  minister  is  earnest  and  honest,  and  a  man  of 
God,  if  he  bears  about  him  the  savor  of  the  heavenly 
world  and  the  benevolence  of  this  life,  his  people  will 
know  it.  If  you  know  the  difference  between  a  man 
who  is  in  earnest  and  one  who  is  merely  playing,  do 


180 


LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 


you  suppose  the  people  will  respond  to  the  superficial 
and  lower  qualities,  and  not  to  the  greater  and  nobler 
ones  in  a  true  preacher  ? 

Q.  How  long  would  you  advise  a  young  man  to  preach  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  As  long  as  he  can  make  his  people 
take  his  sermon.  That  is  very  much  like  asking  how 
long  a  coat  you  should  have  made  for  people,  in 
general. 


VIII. 

HEALTH,   AS    EELATED    TO    PKEACHING. 

[HERE  has  been,  in  recent  times,  a  great 
deal  more  information  diffused  among  the 
common  people  on  the  subject  of  health 
than  formerly,  and  men  live  more  whole- 
somely, and  all  the  processes  of  society  are  in  better 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  life.  Men  have  more  in- 
telligent ideas  of  what  to  avoid  and  what  to  seek. 

There  is  one  relation,  however,  to  which  I  shall  more 
particularly  confine  myself  to-day,  which  has  been 
largely  left  out  of  the  popular  consideration,  and  that 
is  the  relation  of  health  to  brain-work. 

If  you  take  a  full  stem  of  wheat  in  harvest-time,  and 
shake  out  all  the  kernels  of  wheat,  what  is  left  is  chaff 
and  straw.  So,  if  you  take  from  a  man  his  brain- 
power, all  that  is  left  of  him  is  chaff  and  straw ;  that 
is,  it  is  nothing  but  animal.  All  there  is  of  a  man 
lies  in  the  nerve  and  brain  power;  and  while  the 
business  of  life  is  to  take  care  of  the  bone  and  muscle, 
the  stomach,  the  liver,  the  lungs,  and  the  heart,  that  is 
only  because  this  is  the  way  to  take  care  of  that  which 
is,  after  all,  the  sovereign,  and  for  which  all  these  other 


182          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

tilings  are  merely  servants  and  messengers  and  purveyors. 
It  is  the  brain-power,  or  the  mental  power  as  expressed 
through  the  brain,  that  causes  man  to  surpass  the  lower 
creations  around  him. 

Xow,  it  is  not  very  difficult  for  a  man  to  live  in  the 
enjoyment  of  good  health  who  is  born  with  a  good 
constitution,  which  he  has  not  in  youth  drained  and 
sapped,  and  who  has  come  into  a  noble  and  virtuous 
manhood,  and  into  a  profession  that  will  keep  him 
within  proper  bounds  of  exertion.  But  you  must  re- 
member that  you  are  going  to  be  under  fire.  Let  a 
man  be  in  the  midst  of  a  desperate  naval  engagement, 
where  the  shot  and  shell  are  filling  the  air,  and  the 
splinters  flying  thick  as  hail,  he  will  find  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  pass  unscathed.  Let  a  man  be  in  the  midst 
of  an  awakened  community,  where  all  the  members  of 
two  hundred  families  have  a  right  to  go  to  his  fire  and 
light  their  torches ;  where  he  is  obliged  to  preach 
Monday,  and  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  and  Thursday, 
and  Friday,  and  Saturday,  and  twice  on  Sunday ;  where 
he  is  visited  by  all ;  where  he  must  preside  at  prayer- 
meetings  and  social  gatherings  ;  and  where  he  has  to 
be  a  perpetual  fountain,  out  of  which  so  many  different 
hydrants  are  drawing  their  supplies,  —  then  to  keep 
one's  health  is  a  very  different  thing. 

There  are  few  men  in  the  ministry  who  live  at  one 
half  their  competency  or  power.  They  do  not  know 
how  to  make  their  machines  work  at  a  high  rate  of 
speed,  with  great  executive  energy,  without  damage  to 
themselves.  It  is  an  art  to  be  healthy  at  all ;  but  to 
be  healthy  when  you  are  run  at  the  top  of  your  speed 
all  the  time  is  a  great  art  indeed. 


HEALTH,   AS    RELATED   TO   PltEACIILNG.  183 

WHAT   IS   HEALTH? 

Let  me  tell  you  that  when  I  speak  of  health,  I  do 
not  mean  merely  not  being  sick.  I  divide  people  into, 
first,  the  sick  folk ;  secondly,  the  not-sick  folk  ;  thirdly, 
the  almost-healthy  folk ;  and  fourthly  —  and  they  are 
the  elect  —  the  folk  that  are  healthy.  What  I  mean 
by  "health"  is  such  a  feeling  or  tone  in  every  part 
of  a  man's  body  or  system  that  he  has  the  natural 
language  of  health.  What  is  the  natural  language 
of  health  ?  Look  at  four-months-old  puppies,  and  see. 
Look  at  kittens,  and  see.  Look  at  children,  from  the 
time  they  are  three  or  four  or  five  years  old.  Look  at 
young  men,  when  they  are  at  school  and  at  the  academy. 
They  cannot  eat  enough,  nor  holloa  enough,  nor  run 
enough,  nor  wrestle  enough.  They  are  just  full.  It 
is  buoyancy.  It  is  the  insatiable  desire  of  play  and 
of  exertion. 

The  nature  of  the  human  constitution,  in  a  state  of 
health,  is  to  be  a  creative  instrument  or  agent ;  and  the 
necessity  in  a  man  to  be  creating  outside  of  himself 
is  one  of  the  noblest  tokens  of  health.  When  one  has 
been  kept  at  work  and  under  the  yoke,  he  has  played 
off  his  surplus  energy  in  the  various  channels  of  his 
business  activities.  We  do  not  expect  a  man  to  bound 
and  caper  about,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  has  other 
legitimate  channels  to  work  off  his  steam  in.  But  let 
him  get  a  vacation.  He  goes  to  the  White  Mountains. 
He  has  three  or  four  days  of  uncaring  rest  and  nights 
of  long  sleep,  and  then  he  awakes  to  the  stimulus  of  the 
mountains.  "  Well,"  he  says,  "  I  feel  like  a  boy  again," 
which  is  only  another  way  of  saying,  "  I  feel  my  health." 


184          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

His  system  is  not  perverted.  He  is  rested  in  all  his 
parts,  and  that  vast  amount  of  energy  and  vitality 
which  he  generates,  but  which  in  the  city  was  worked 
off  in  professional  labors  and  social  relations,  is  now 
being  collected  again;  the  measure  of  the  instrument 
is  filled  and  it  pours  over.  A  man  in  health  is  a 
fountain,  and  he  flows  over  at  the  eye,  at  the  lip,  and 
all  the  time,  by  every  species  of  action  and  demonstra- 
tion. 

I  have  often  seen  what  are  called  over-shot  wheels, 
where  they  have  a  very  small  and  weak  stream.  They 
get  a  wheel  of  large  diameter,  and  the  buckets  are 
made  in  a  peculiar  form,  sloping  from  the  mouth  up. 
Then  comes  a  little  trickling  stream  which  pours  down 
into  the  big  buckets  its  slow  accumulation  of  water- 
weight,  and  it  begins  to  turn  the  wheel  very  moderately 
and  gradually,  and  so  it  goes.  That  is  about  the  con- 
dition in  which  average  men  are  working,  with  just 
enough  power  to  turn  an  over-shot  wheel.  But  if  you 
have  a  great,  full,  strong  stream,  the  mere  impact  of 
which  on  the  wheel  is  enough  to  turn  it,  then  the 
wheel  is  made  under-shot,  and  the  water  comes  dashing 
against  the  breast  and  bottom  of  it,  and  around  it  goes, 
promptly  and  rapidly.  The  miller  says,  "  What  do  I 
care  ?  I  have  got  the  whole  stream.  There  is  no  use 
in  economizing  my  water ;  I  will  let  it  flow,"  and  the 
water  runs  all  the  time.  There  are  very  few  men  that 
can  afford  to  run  on  an  under-shot  wheel.  Almost  all 
men  are  economists  of  their  resources,  because  they 
have  not  this  real  high  health. 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.      185 
HEALTH  AND  THOUGHT. 

As  to  the  direct  bearing  of  this  bodily  condition  on 
your  coming  duties,  let  me  say,  first,  men  in  a  high 
state  of  health  invariably  see  more  sharply  the  truth 
that  they  are  after.  They  see  its  relations  and  its  fit- 
ness. They  have  a  sense  of  direction,  combination, 
and  of  the  power  of  relations  of  truth  to  emotion. 
The  old-fashioned  way  of  preparing  a  sermon  was 
where  a  man  sat  down  with  his  pipe,  and  smoked  and 
"thought,"  as  he  called  it,  and  after  one  or. two  or  three 
hours,  —  his  wife  saying  to  everybody  in  the  mean 
time,  "  Dear  man,  he  is  up  stairs  studying ;  he  has  to 
study  so  hard !  "  —  in  which  he  has  been  in  a  muggy, 
fumbling  state  of  mind,  he  at  last  comes  out  with  the 
product  of  it  for  the  pulpit.  It  is  like  unleavened 
bread,  doughy,  dumpy,  and  heavy,  —  hard  to  eat,  and 
harder  to  digest.  There  has  been  nothing  put  in  it  to 
vitalize  it.  But  when  a  man  is  in  a  perfect  state  of 
health,  no  matter  where  he  goes,  he  is  sensitive  to  social 
influence  and  to  social  wants.  He  discovers  men's 
necessities  instinctively.  He  is  very  quick  to  choose 
the  instrument  by  which  to  minister  to  those  neces- 
sities, so  that  wrhen  he  goes  to  his  study  he  has  some- 
thing to  do,  and  he  knows  ichat  it  is. 

He  is  accurate  in  his  thinking.  Is  there  no  difference 
in  the  varying  moods  of  the  draughtsman  ?  Take  him 
with  a  bilious  headache.  Do  you  suppose  he  can  make 
his  strokes  so  that  every  line  of  his  drawing  shall 
express  thought  ?  Some  people  say,  "  Why,  there  are 
times  when  I  can  do  more  in  a  day  than  in  a  week  at 
other  times,"  which  is  true,  because  at  those  periods  the 


186          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

system  is  in  a  perfect  condition  of  health.  Suppose 
you  could  have  that  condition  always,  what  workers 
you  would  be  !  How  it  would  sharpen  your  compre- 
hension of  the  various  relations  of  truth,  and  witli 
what  ease  could  you  see  and  handle  them!  For -all 
these  things  are  largely  dependent  upon  health.  You 
cannot  drudge  them  out. 

Men  are  said  to  have  genius.  What  is  genius  but  a 
condition  of  fiber,  and  a  condition  of  health  in  fiber  ? 
It  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  automatic  thinking. 
And  w^hat  is  automatic  thinking  ?  It  is  thought  that 
thinks  itself,  instead  of  being  run  up  or  worried  up  to 
think.  Whoever  thinks  without  thinking  is  in  fact 
a  genius.  In  music,  it  is  said  that  it  "makes  it- 
self." In  arithmetic  or  mechanics,  the  demonstration 
"comes"  to  you.  You  do  not  think  it  out,  except 
automatically.  Eeal  thinking  ought  to  be  automatic 
action,  and  almost  unconscious.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, your  intuitions  and  your  sudden  automatic 
thinking,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  will  be  true ;  and 
when  you  send  slow -footed  Logic  afterward  to  meas- 
ure the  footsteps  and  the  way  over  which  your  thoughts 
have  traveled,  Logic  will  come  back  and  report, 
"Well,  I  did  not  believe  it,  but  he  was  right,  after 
all."  So,  then,  for  sharpness  and  accuracy  and  com- 
plexity of  thinking,  in  which  much  of  your  life  ought 
to  lie,  you  require  the  best  conditions  of  health  in  the 
system  by  which  you  think. 

HEALTH   IN   SPEAKING. 

The  next  step  is  where  you  come  to  speak  what  you 
have  thought.  You  know  how  beautifully  some  men 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.      187 

write,  and  how  poorly  they  deliver;  how  well  they 
prepare  their  materials,  and  yet  their  materials  when 
prepared  are  of  no  force  whatever.  They  are  beautiful 
arrows,  —  arrows  of  silver ;  golden-tipped  are  they,  and 
winged  with  the  feathers  of  the  very  bird  of  paradise. 
But  there  is  no  bow  to  draw  the  arrows  to  the  head  and 
shoot  them  strongly  home,  and  so  they  all  fall  out  of 
the  sheath  down  in  front  of  the  pulpit  or  platform. 
People  say,  "Those  sermons  are  fit  to  be  printed,"  — 
and  they  are  fit  for  nothing  else.  They  are  essays. 
They  are  sections  of  books.  But  what  the  preacher 
wants  is  the  power  of  having  something  that  is  worth 
saying,  and  then  the  power  of  saying  it.  He  is  to  hold 
the  light  up  so  that  a  blind  man  cannot  help  feeling 
that  it  is  falling  on  his  orbs.  He  needs  to  put  the 
truth  in  such  a  way  that  if  a  man  were  asleep  it  would 
wake  him  up  ;  and  if  he  were  dead,  it  would  give  him 
resurrection  for  the  hour. 

A  man  that  breaks  his  backbone  every  time  he 
explodes  a  vowel,  —  how  can  he  do  it  ? 

POPULAR   ORATORS. 

Who  are  the  speakers  that  move  the  crowd,  —  men 
after  the  pattern  of  Whitefield,  what  are  they  ?  They 
are  almost  always  men  of  very  large  physical  develop- 
ment, men  of  very  strong  digestive  powers,  and  whose 
lungs  have  great  aerating  capacity.  They  are  men  of 
great  vitality  and  recuperative  force.  They  are  men 
who,  while  they  have  a  sufficient  thought-power  to 
create  all  the  material  needed,  have  pre-eminently  the 
explosive  power  by  which  they  can  thrust  their  mate- 
rials out  at  men.  They  are  catapults,  and  men  go 


188          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

down  before  them.  Of  course  you  will  find  men  now 
mid  then,  thin  and  shrill- voiced,  who  are  popular  speak- 
ers. Sometimes  men  are  organized  with  a  compact  ner- 
vous tempera  ID  out  and  are  slender  framed,  while  they 
have  a  certain  concentrated  earnestness,  and  in  narrow 
lines  they  move  with  great  intensity.  John  Eandolph 
was  such  a  man. 

THRUST-POWER. 

I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  this  force-giving 
power,  that  whicji  lends  impetuosity,  that  which  gives 
what  I  might  call  lunge  to  a  man's  preaching. 

Why  should  you  waste  your  time  every  Sunday 
morning  and  night,  without  being  conscious  of  having 
done  anything  ?  You  can  afford  to  do  it  occasionally, 
as.  there  is  wastage  in  all  systems ;  but  a  man  who  goes 
on  preaching  when  there  is  no  evidence  of  accomplish- 
ment is  like  a  windmill  that  the  boys  put  on  the  top 
of  a  house ;  it  goes  around  and  around,  but  it  grinds 
nothing  below.  Preaching  is  business,  young  gentle- 
men. It  means  the  hardest  kind  of  work. 

There  is  nothing  else  in  this  world  that  requires  so 
many  resources,  so  much  thought,  so  much  sagacity,  so 
much  constant  application,  so  much  freshness,  such 
intensity  of  conception  within,  and  such  power  of  exe- 
cution without,  as  geniiine  preaching.  Ministers  some- 
times think  they  do  their  duty  by  resting  chiefly  on 
their  faithful  pastoral  labors,  but  they  do  not  half  bring 
out  the  preaching-power,  when  they  rely  on  the  indirect 
and  social  influences  that  are  connected  with  it.  One 
should  help  the  other.  You  are  to  bring  out  the 
preaching-element,  if  it  is  in  you;  for,  in  this  age, 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.      189 

preaching  is  almost  everything.  This  is  pre-eminently 
the  talking  age.  A  preacher  must  be  a  good  talker, 
and  must  have  something  in  him  that  is  worth  talking 
about.  People  say,  "  Show  me  a  man  of  deeds,  and  not 
of  words."  You  might  as  well  say,  "Show  me  a  field 
of  corn ;  I  don't  care  about  clouds  and  rain."  Talking 
makes  thought  and  feeling,  and  thought  and  feeling 
make  action.  Show  me  a  man  of  words  who  knows 
how  to  incite  noble  deeds  ! 

HEALTH  AS   A   CHEERING   INFLUENCE. 

But,  once  more,  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  who  is 
an  invalid  to  sustain  a  cheerful  and  hopeful  ministry 
among  his  people.  An  invalid  looks  with  a  sad  eye 
upon  human  life.  He  may  be  sympathetic,  but  it  is 
almost  always  with  the  shadows  that  are  in  the  world. 
He  will  give  out  moaning  and  drowsy  hymns.  He  will 
make  prayers  that  are  almost  all  piteous.  It  may  not 
be  a  minister's  fault  if  he  be  afflicted  and  ill,  and  ad- 
ministers his  duties  in  mourning  and  sadness,  but  it  is 
a  vast  misfortune  for  his  people. 

If  there  is  anything  in  this  world  that  is  the  product 
of  wholesome,  healthy  souls,  it  is  the  hope-giving  and 
joyful  comforter.  If  there  was  ever  a  system  of  joy 
and  hope  in  the  world,  prefigured  by  the  prophets,  and 
afterward  characterized  by  the  Sun  of  Eighteousness, 
it  is  that  ardent  and  hope-inspiring  gospel  that  you 
are  to  preach.  You  are  not  sent  out  to  tell  of  the  dun- 
geon and  the  pit,  the  shackle  and  the  yoke,  —  except  as 
redeemed  by  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  into  rest  and 
peace.  And  the  very  product  of  the  gospel  which  you  are 
to  carry  to  mankind  is  hope  and  cheer.  It  is  good  news. 


190  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

You  find  men  struggling  with  cares.  They  stand 
where  a  dozen  ways  meet,  in  utter  perplexity,  and 
they  want  the  best  advice  you  can  give.  Your  Sunday 
ought  to  bring  this  witness  from  your  flock  every  single 
month  of  your  ministry :  "  If  it  had  not  been  for  the 
refreshment  that  I  got  on  Sundays  I  never  could  have 
carried  my  burdens."  The  sweetest  praises  that  minis- 
ters can  ever  have  are  from  the  house  of  trouble,  from 
men  in  bankruptcy,  from  men  hunted  by  perverse  for- 
tune almost  to  the  bounds  of  suicide.  They  come  to 
you,  and  say,  "  Sir,  it  was  the  cheer  and  comfort  of  your 
preaching  that  helped  me  through,  or  I  never  could 
have  endured  it."  That  will  be  better  than  any  guer- 
don and  any  compliment.  We  are  sent  to  men  that 
are  cheerless,  men  in  distress,  men  who  are  burdened ; 
and  we  have  no  business  to  have  any  other  ministry 
than  that  which  is  based  on  the  sweet  teachings  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  "We  must  learn  ardor  and  fervor 
from  St.  Paul's  interpretation  of  them.  We  must  tell 
of  love,  hope,  courage,  and  the  cheering  prospect  of  a 
blessed  immortality.  What  business  have  you  to  turn 
all  this  into  a  minor  symphony  ?  But  you  cannot  do 
otherwise,  unless  you  keep  yourselves  healthy,  cheerful, 
hopeful,  and  buoyant.  You  must  call  in  to  your  assist- 
ance all  the  help  you  can  derive  from  the  highest 
conditions  of  bodily  health. 

HEALTHFUL  VIEWS   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

Then  there  is  a  relation  of  this  question  in  another 
direction.  I  think  the  minister  of  a  parish,  who  has 
been  there  for  five  years,  ought  to  impress  upon  the 
young  people  of  his  parish  the  practical  idea,  that  to 


HEALTH,  AS  KELATED  TO  PREACHING.      191 

be  a  Christian  is  to  be  the  happiest  person  in  the 
world.  Men  say,  "  Let  us  have  our  enjoyment  here, 
and  have  a  good  time ;  then,  when  we  have  had  it,  and 
tasted  what  there  is  to  be  tasted,  we  had  better  be 
pious."  That  is  about  the  idea  of  it.  It  is  a  gloomy 
and  dismal  thing ;  but,  to  a  certain  extent,  we  are  to 
blame  for  this  false  notion. 

Xow  it  seems  to  me  that  we  ought  to  make  known 
what  is  unquestionably  the  truth,  namely,  that  Chris- 
tianity aims  only  at  a  nobler  style  of  manhood,  and 
at  a  better  and  happier  style  of  living.  Christianity 
means  friendship  carried  up  into  a  sphere  where  by 
the  natural  man  you  could  never  elevate  it.  It  means 
the  purest  enjoyments  of  earth  as  well  as  heaven.  It 
means  that  life  shall  blossom  like  Aaron's  rod.  And 
every  man  who  is  a  true  Christian  is  one  who  has 
lived  up  to  the  measure  of  his  competency,  in  a  bright 
and  joyful  life,  compared  with  which  all  other  lives  are 
low  and  ignoble.  The  Apostle  Paul,  after  going  through 
a  long  line  of  exhortations  to  virtue,  finally  wound  up 
by  saying,  "  "Whatever  is  lovely  and  of  good  report, 
think  on  these  things." 

A  true  minister,  in  order  to  inspire  his  congregation 
with  this  noble  conception  of  a  Christian  character  and 
a  Christian  life,  must  have  something  in  him.  He  can- 
not go  around  with  lead  in  his  shoes,  nor  yet  in  his 
head.  He  cannot  drudge  and  complain.  A  man  of 
God  ought  to  strike  men  among  whom  he  moves  as 
being  more  manly  than  anybody  else ;  certainly,  never 
less.  You  should  bear  in  mind  that  you  are  twice  or- 
dained, —  once,  when  your  mother  laid  her  hand  in  love 
upon  your  just-bom  head,  after  giving  you  your  organi- 


192  LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

zation  and  nature ;  and,  again,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  later 
in  life,  to  give  you  a  fuller  development.  If  you  are 
not  a  man,  what  business  have  you  in  the  ministry  ? 
You  have  mistaken  your  vocation.  You  may  do  to 
make  some  oth'er  things,  but  you  will  not  be  a  maker 
of  men.  It  takes  a  man  to  refashion  men.  You  can- 
not do  it  unless  you  have  some  sort  of  vigor,  vitality, 
versatility,  moral  impulse,  and  social  power  in  you. 
And  if  you  have  these  things,  how  they  will  win ! 
How  men  will  want  to  come  to  you !  They  tell  me 
that  the  pulpit  is  losing  its  power,  that  religion  is 
going  under,  and  that  science  is  to  rule.  I  will  put 
genuine  manly  religion  against  all  the  science  in  the 
world. 

HEALTH   AS  A  SWEETENER   OF  WORK. 

I  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  life,  and  on  all  of  its 
sides.  I  have  seen  the  depths  of  poverty,  and  I  have 
seen  competency.  I  have  seen  the  extremity  of  solitari- 
ness, and  the  crowds  of  a  city,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
I  have  seen  what  art  has  done,  and  whatever  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  wilderness.  I  have  had  youth  and  middle 
age,  and  now  I  am  an  old  man.  I  have  seen  it  all,  and 
I  bear  witness  that,  while  there  are  single  moments  of 
joy  in  other  matters  that,  perhaps,  carry  a  man  up  to 
the  summit  of  feeling,  yet  for  steadfast  and  repetitious 
experience  there  is  no  pleasure  in  this  world  compara- 
ble to  that  which  a  man  has  who  habitually  stands 
before  an  audience  with  an  errand  of  truth,  which  he 
feels  in  every  corner  of  his  soul  and  in  every  fiber  of 
his  body,  and  to  whom  the  Lord  has  given  liberty  of 
utterance,  so  that  he  is  pouring  out  the  whole  manhood 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.      193 

in  him  upon  his  congregation.  Nothing  in  the  world 
is  comparable  to  that.  It  goes  echoing  on  in  you  after 
you  get  through.  Once  in  a  while  I  preach  sermons 
that  leave  me  in  such  a  delightful  state  of  mind  that 
I  do  not  get  over  it  for  two  days ;  and  I  wonder  that 
I  am  not  a  better  man.  I  feel  it  all  day  Sunday  and 
Monday,  and  there  is  not  an  organ  in  the  world  that 
makes  music  so  grand  to  me  as  I  feel  in  such  supreme 
hours  and  moments.  But  I  am  conscious  how  largely 
the  physical  element  of  healthfulness  enters  into  this 
experience.  "When  I  am  depressed  in  body  and  hea^y 
in  mind  I  do  not  get  it.  You  cannot  expect  either 
these  exceptional,  higher  consummations,  or  the  strong, 
steady  flow  of  a  joyful  relish  for  your  work,  unless  you 
cultivate  a  robust  and  healthful  manhood. 

PRACTICAL   HINTS. 

I  will  now  suggest  to  you  some  practical  directions, 
•which  are  very  largely  the  result  of  my  personal  ex- 
perience, and  which  may  be  profitable  to  you.  You 
must  excuse  any  egotism  I  may  exhibit.  As  I  under- 
stand it,  these  lectures  are  nothing  but  a  branch  of 
the  regular  chair  of  Pastoral  Theology,  and  I  am  to 
explain  here  in  its  practical  form  that  which,  in  its 
philosophical  form,  Professor  Hoppin  gives  you  in  his 
instructions  at  other  times.  Experience  is  always  ego- 
tism, and  that  is  what  I  am  here  to  give  you. 

To  begin  with,  I  will  say  that  I  had  this  advantage, 
that  my  father  was  a  dyspeptic.  From  my  earliest 
childhood  I  noticed  the  great  watchfulness  and  skill 
with  which  he  took  care  of  himself,  and  now  and  then 
he  dropped  words  of  advice.  When  I  went  into  the 


194          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

ministry,  I  remembered  some  of  his  maxims  and  some 
of  his  incidental  utterances.  They  led  me  to  think 
about  caring  for  my  own  health;  I  did  not  know 
much  about  it,  but  I  thought  about  it.  I  "  watched  "  it, 
as  the  engineers  say  on  the  road.  A  good  engineer 
watches  both  the  engine  and  the  road.  And  now,  as 
the  result  of  between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  inces- 
sant preaching,  I  give  you  these  hints  in  regard  to 
the  care  of  your  health. 

MUSCULAR   STRENGTH  NOT  ENOUGH. 

When  I  first  began,  I  had  an  impression  that  if  I  had 
good  bone  and  muscle  I  should  be  all  right.  I  very 
soon  learned  that  it  was  possible  for  a  man  to  take  too 
much  exercise,  and  that  a  man  could  be  built  up  phys- 
ically at  the  expense  of  his  brain.  You  are  sufficiently 
acquainted  with  aquatic  and  other  sports  to  know  that 
you  may  over-train  a  man,  so  that  he  is  carried  beyond 
his  highest  power.  Now,  if  you  undertake,  as  scholars, 
very  violent  exercise,  according  to  the  exaggerated  idea 
of  muscular  Christianity,  you  will  very  soon  use  up 
all  the  vitality  of  your  system  in  the  bone-and-muscle 
development,  and  it  will  leave  you,  not  better,  but  less 
fitted  for  intellectual  exertion.  Yet  there  must  be 
enough  care  given  to  bone  and  muscle  to  furnish  a 
good  platform,  on  which  your  artillery  is  to  stand. 

THE  ART   OF  EATING. 

Next  comes  the  stomach.  In  regard  to  that,  every- 
body feels  that  he  must  not  be  a  glutton  nor  a  gor- 
mand,  but  there  is  very  little  discrimination  and  very 


HEALTH,  AS  BELATED  TO  PREACHING.      195 

little  observation  as  to  the  quantity  and  quality  and 
the  times  and  seasons  of  eating.  Preachers  may  be 
divided  into  two  great  classes :  the  sanguineous  class, 
who  cannot  eat  much  if  they  are  going  to  think  or 
speak ;  and  the  class  who  have  the  extreme  nervous 
temperament,  who  cannot  speak  or  work  unless  they  do 
eat.  On  Sunday  morning,  when  I  wake,  my  first  thought 
is  that  it  is  Sunday  morning,  and  the  very  idea  of  it 
takes  away  my  appetite.  I  go  down,  drink  a  cup  of 
coffee,  and  eat  an  egg  and  half  a  slice  of  toast.  That 
is  all  I  can  eat.  There  is  just  enough  to  sustain  my 
system.  Then  I  preach,  and,  if  I  have  not  done  very 
well,  I  am  hungry;  but  if  I  have  done  very  well,  I 
cannot  eat  much  dinner.  That  is  because  there  is  a 
reaction  of  the  nervous  influence  of  the  system.  The 
whole  system  is  working  so  much  by  the  brain  and 
the  nerves  that  the  stomach  does  not  crave  anything. 
Just  as  great  grief,  or  fear,  or  any  other  extreme  passion, 
takes  away  appetite,  so  does  active  preaching.  Ordi- 
narily, I  take  but  a  moderate  dinner  on  Sunday.  Sup- 
per with  me  is  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  I 
usually  take  a  cup  of  tea  and  a  small  piece  of  cracker. 
That  is  all  I  can  take.  Then  I  go  to  my  evening  work, 
and  when  I  get  through,  I  sometimes  am  satisfied  to 
take  nothing  but  an  orange,  which  I  eat  to  give  my 
stomach  something  to  do  until  morning,  and  to  keep 
it  from  craving,  —  for  often  a  fit  of  craving  will  give 
one  a  nightmare  as  quickly  as  overfeeding  will.  At 
other  times  I  feel  a  strong  appetite,  and  then  I  eat. 
Perhaps  once  out  of  five  Sundays  I  eat  more  just  after 
preaching,  morning  or  evening,  than  I  do  all  the  rest 
of  the  day  put  together.  The  system  indicates  it,  and 


196          LECTUKES  OX  PREACHING. 

therefore  I  am  riot  harmed  by  it.     It  does  not  disturb 
my  sleep,  and  digestion  goes  on  perfectly. 

Now  the  point  I  take  is,  not  that  you  shall  follow 
this,  but  that  you  shall  find  out,  accurately,  in  regard 
to  your  own  eating,  what  obstructs  and  what  does  not 
obstruct  your  mental  operations.  If  you  go  to  your 
study  after  a  hearty  breakfast,  and  you  find  it  takes 
you  from  eight  o'clock  to  eleven  before  you  really  get 
into  your  work,  you  may  be  pretty  sure  that  you  have 
overloaded  your  stomach,  and  that  the  energies  of  your 
system  have  been  so  busy  in  the  work  of  digestion  that 
you  could  riot  call  them  off  to  do  brain-work.  But  if 
you  get  up  from  the  table  after  a  comparatively  light 
meal,  which  requires  but  little  digestion,  and  when  you 
go  into  your  study  find  that  you  can  apply  yourself  at 
once  to  your  labor,  it  is  because  you  have  eaten  in  due 
proportion  to  the  needs  of  your  system.  Eating  is  to 
the  work  of  the  human  body  just  what  the  firing  up 
of  an  engine  is  to  traveling.  Eating  is  a  means  to  an 
end.  It  is  not  a  habit  nor  a  social  custom  merely.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  luxury.  Do  men  eat  stupidly,  and 
simply  because  they  are  "hungry  ?  You  eat  to  make 
working  force ;  and  as  the  engineer  keeps  his  eye  all 
the  time  on  the  steam-gauge  to  know  the  number  of 
pounds  of  pressure,  and  to  regulate  it  to  the  various 
conditions  of  going  up  or  down  grade  or  on  a  level,  and 
to  the  number  of  passengers  he  is  carrying,  so  does  a 
man  eat,  or  so  ought  he  to  eat,  all  the  time  gauging 
himself.  You  have,  in  fact,  to  eat  much  or  little,  ac- 
cording to  the  work  you  have  to  do.  When  you  come 
back  from  a  journey,  you  must  be  careful  not  to  over- 
work yourself,  and  not  to  eat  too  much.  If  you  are  in 


HEALTH,    AS    RELATED    TO   PREACHING.  197 

regular  harness  and  are  working,  you  ought  to  know 
what  you  shall  eat.  Your  business  is  to  eat  so  that 
you  can  think  and  work,  and  not  for  self-indulgence 
only. 

QUANTITY   OF   SLEEP. 

The  same  holds  good  in  respect  to  sleep.  Many  men, 
going  into  the  ministry,  have  broken  down  from  want 
of  sleep.  I  will  say  a  few  things  on  that  point.  In  the 
first  place,  sleep,  that  was  reckoned  involuntary,  like 
many  other  involuntary  things,  can  to  a  certain  extent 
be  brought  under  the  dominion  of  habit  and  the  will. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  human  will  is  the 
strongest  power  in  this  world,  next  to  death.  A  man 
who  says,  "  By  the  grace  of  God  I  WILL,"  and  who 
feels  it  in  his  bones,  in  his  muscles,  and  in  his  whole 
being,  can  do  almost  anything.  Now  it  may  seem  a 
little  singular,  but  it  is  true,  that  if  you  are  possessed 
of  a  very  nervous  organization  you  will  need  less  sleep 
than  if  you  are  of  a  phlegmatic  temperament.  If  a 
man  is  dull,  lethargic,  and  slow,  eight  or  nine  hours  of 
sleep  is  necessary  for  him.  But,  if  he  is  nervous,  lithe, 
thin,  quick,  vividly  sensitive,  so  that  he  is  all  the  time 
letting  out  sparks  somewhere,  he  will  require  but  from 
five  to  seven  hours'  sleep.  That  seems  very  strange, 
but  it  is  just  as  simple  as  anything  can  be.  Sleep  is 
an  active  operation,  during  which  the  process  of  assimi- 
lation goes  on.  Xow,  the  nervous  man  eats  quickly, 
works  quickly,  and  sleeps  quickly.  He  does  just  as 
much  work  while  he  is  sleeping  six  hours  as  the  lethar- 
gic man  does  in  seven  or  eight.  A  man  who  is  slow  and 
plethoric,  who  takes  a  breath  before  every  word,  and 


198  LECTURES   ON  PREACHING. 

who  never  lias  a  quick  motion,  can  never  sleep  quickly. 
He  will  be  an  hour  in  doing  up  as  much  work  in  his 
sleep  as  another  man  will  do  in  forty  minutes.  The 
temperament  acts  throughout.  Never  gauge  the  dura- 
tion of  your  sleep  by  the  time  any  one  else  sleeps. 
Some  men  will  tell  you  that  John  Wesley  had  only  M> 
much  sleep,  Hunter,  the  great  physiologist,  so  much,  and 
Napoleon  so  much  sleep.  When  the  Lord  made  you, 
as  a  general  thing,  he  did  not  make  Napoleons.  Every 
man  carries  within  himself  a  Mount  Sinai,  a  revealed 
law,  written  for  himself  separately.  You  must  admin- 
ister sleep  to  yourselves  according  to  your  tempera- 
ment, your  constitution,  and  your  wants.  Something 
you  may  know  presumptively,  but  principally  you  must 
learn  by  experience. 

Sometimes,  when  men  get  into  hard  work,  they  are 
apt  to  sleep  too  much.  Others,  again,  are  inclined  to 
sleep  too  little.  Let  me  say  to  you  here,  that  of  all 
dire  mistakes  among  young  gentlemen,  night  study  is 
the  greatest.  There  may  be  some  of  you  that  can  carry 
that  out  well  Some  men  are  so  tough  that  nothing 
will  seem  to  affect  them  detrimentally.  But  I  think 
that  more  than  eighty  per  cent  of  ministers  who  in- 
dulge in  night  study  abbreviate  their  lives,  weaken 
their  tone,  and  take  away  from  themselves  the  fullness 
of  their  power.  It  is  bad  to  do  it. 

BADLY  REGULATED  WORK. 

It  is  especially  bad  for  a  preacher  to  prepare  his  ser- 
mons on  Saturday  night.  It  is  bad  for  a  man  to  keep 
his  brain  at  the  top  of  its  power  from  early  on  Satur- 
day to  late  at  night,  so  that  he  sleeps  in  a  fiery  dream  of 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.       199 

sermon.  For  then,  he  preaches  on  Sunday ;  and  there 
are  two  days  in  which  the  brain  is  uniutermittingly 
impleted  and  stimulated.  It  is  hot  and  feverish.  Then, 
worse  than  all,  comes  what  is  called  "  black  Monday," 
a  day  upon  which  the  minister  throws  off  everything, 
and  thus  completely  unstrings  the  bow. 

You  must  give  yourselves  intervals  of  rest  and  play- 
time. But  never  let  an  excitement  have  such  a  rest 
that  you  run  clear  down.  The  way  to  cure  an  excite- 
ment is  to  meet  it  with  another  one.  If  you  have 
preached  all  the  week,  and  are  keyed  up  very  high,  and 
you  say  to  yourself,  "  Now  I  must  rest,"  and  you  rest 
a  day,  but  still  the  nervous  excitement  continues ;  and 
Sunday  you  call  again  upon  your  brain,  which  gives  the 
response,  you  will,  perhaps,  be  carried  over  Monday; 
but  by  Tuesday  you  begin  to  come  down,  and  you  think 
the  earth  is  not  so  bright  as  it  formerly  seemed.  You 
begin  to  think  that  you  have  mistaken  your  vocation, 
and  that  you  will  turn  farmer.  Then  you  have  gone 
down  as  far  as  you  ought.  Some  begin  to  see  the  blue 
devils  at  that  point.  You  must  meet  fire  with  fire. 
A  new  excitement,  brought  in  from  another  quarter, 
however,  and  of  a  different  nature,  will  meet  the  old 
one,  and  on  the  ashes  of  the  past  you  will  build  up  a 
new  flame. 

I  have  sometimes  had  a  whole  month  of  undertone, 
because  I  let  go  and  ran  clear  down,  not  knowing  then 
how  to  meet  one  excitement  with  another,  and  thus 
carry  myself  along  healthily. 

For  the  Sabbath  day,  it  seems  to  me  that  while  it  is 
important  that  you  should  train  for  thought  and  matter, 
it  is  only  second  in  importance  that  you  should  train 


200          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

also  for  condition.  Now,  no  man  who  studies  during 
the  last  part  of  the  week  so  that  he  comes  to  Sunday 
with  only  the  refuse  of  what  he  has  in  him,  making 
it  his  weakest  day,  can  come  up  to  the  requirements 
of  his  duty.  He  is  kept  in  a  continual  state  of  ex- 
citement, passing  from  one  strain  to  another  without  in- 
terval. No  man  is  wise  who  does  it.  Saturday  should 
be  a  play-day.  I  make  it  a  day,  not  of  laziness,  but 
of  genial,  social,  pleasurable  exhilaration.  I  go  up 
street  and  see  pleasant  people.  I  go  and  look  at  pic- 
tures. I  have  a  great  many  sources  of  enjoyment  that 
many  of  you  could  not  enjoy.  I  love  to  see  horses. 
I  like  to  go  on  the  street  and  see  the  different  teams 
go  by.  I  like  to  stand  on  the  ferry-boat  and  see  the 
splendid  horses  come  on  with  their  great  loads.  I 
like  a  Dexter.  I  like  all  fine  horses,  but  I  like  the 
dray-horses,  too.  There  is  such  a  sense  of  might  and 
power  with  them.  They  are  almost  as  interesting  as 
a  locomotive  engine  —  the  finest  thing  man  ever  cre- 
ated, unless  it  be  a  watch.  I  like  to  go  to  Tiffany's. 
I  ask,  "  What  are  your  men  doing  to-day  ? "  "  Well," 
says  Tiffany,  "  we  will  go  down  and  see."  We  go 
down  to  the  ateliers,  watch  the  workmen  silver-plating 
and  engraving,  and  talk  with  them.  It  is  a  good  thing 
for  you  to  live  close  to  common  people,  plain  folks 
and  working-men.  It  keeps  you  near  to  humanity 
as  distinguished  from  artificiality  and  conventionalism. 
After  I  get  home  I  enjoy  myself  quietly  in  the  evening, 
and  when  Sunday  comes  I  am  impleted.  I  have  fresh 
blood ;  and  without  training  for  condition,  I  have  it. 
I  feel  like  a  race-horse.  Sometimes  I  cannot  wait  for 
the  time  to  come  for  me  to  go  into  the  pulpit.  I  long 


HEALTH,   AS   BELATED   TO   PREACHING.  201 

to  speak.  But  this  result  cannot  be  attained  by  study- 
ing yourselves  up,  and  coming  into  church  on  Sunday 
quite  dry  and  desiccated. 

SLEEP   AFTER   WORK. 

People  have  often  asked  me  how  I  managed  to  sleep 
after  preaching.  Generally,  I  do  not  have  any  difficulty 
in  getting  to  sleep.  I  can  always  sleep  after  a  good  ser- 
mon, and  even  bad  ones  do  not  keep  me  awake  long ! 
You  must  remember  that  the  reason  why  a  man  cannot 
sleep  after  excitement  is  because  his  brain  is  gorged 
with  blood.  The  blood  is  the  stimulus  which  works 
the  brain,  and  the  brain  draws  to  itself  all  the  blood  it 
can  get.  I  always  know  whether  my  brain  has  been 
doing  its  work  well  or  not.  If  I  find  my  hands  and 
feet  warm,  I  say  generally  that  the  product  of  my 
thought  is  not  worth  much  ;  and  I  begin  to  think  there 
has  been  a  waste  of  brain-material.  But  if  my  hands  and 
feet  grow  chilly,  and  I  have  to  wrap  up  all  over,  on 
account  of  the  blood,  which  is  the  working  force,  being 
drawn  away  from  the  extremities  to  the  brain,  I  know 
-that  the  thinking  power  has  been  busy, —  has  probably 
worked  to  some  effect.  You  must  .deal  with  yourselves 
on  this  theory;  whatever  will  distribute  the  blood  to 
every  part  of  your  system  will  relieve  the  brain,  and 
you  will  be  able  to  go  to  sleep.  In  the  first  place,  do 
not  talk  after  preaching  on  Sunday  nights.  Do  not  go 
home  and  have  a  good  time  over  what  you  have  seen 
and  heard.  Many  a  minister  uses  himself  up  more  by 
the  after-piece  than  he  does  by  the  main  performance. 
It  is  sweet  to  talk  when  you  are  in  such  fine  condition ! 
Everybody  is  there  pouring  out  compliments  upon  you. 
9* 


202          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

But  they  are  wasting  you.  You  are  like  the  cocoon  of 
a  silkworm,  which  they  are  unwinding,  and  in  so  doing 
they  take  the  life  out  of  you.  You  never  get  through 
your  work.  I  owe  what  I  know  of  horticulture  to  the 
study  I  gave  it  at  short  intervals,  when  I  was  preaching 
every  day  for  two  years,  and  twice  on  Sunday,  besides 
doing  revival  and  other  work.  I  got  out  of  the  State 
Library  of  Indiana  four  or  five  volumes  of  London's 
works  on  agriculture  and  horticulture.  I  read  them. 
There  was  a  charm  in  reading  even  the  names  of  the 
plants  in  the  catalogues,  although  there  was  nothing  very 
stimulating  in  it.  It  was  like  Webster's  Dictionary, 
where  the  connection  is  broken  at  every  word,  and  yet 
it  is  intensely  interesting  to  read.  In  that  way  I  let 
myself  down  quietly,  and  then  I  could  go  to  sleep. 

But  suppose  I  cannot  go  to  sleep  ?  I  get  up  from 
bed,  and  walk  about  the  room  without  dressing  myself. 
That  is,  I  take  an  air-bath,  and,  if  need  be,  I  throw  up 
the  window,  and  keep  on  walking,  not  until  I  am  chilled, 
but  until  I  am  pretty  nearly  chilled.  The  moment  that 
any  part  of  the  human  body  is  attacked,  the  vital  forces 
rush  to  that  part  to  repair  any  loss  that  may  have  taken 
place.  If  you  take  cold,  the  vital  forces  instantly  at- 
tempt to  establish  the  equilibrium.  Bring  cold  to  bear 
upon  your  body,  and  the  vital  forces  instantly  send  out 
the  blood  to  the  part  where  the  cold  is,  to  restore  the 
warmth,  and  that  relieves  the  system.  The  blood  ceases 
to  be  dammed  up  in  the  brain  and  in  tEe  large  vessels. 

But  suppose  I  cannot  sleep  then ;  what  is  to  be  done  ? 
I  say  to  myself,  "  Now,  you  have  got  to  go  to  sleep ;  and 
the  sooner  you  give  up,  the  better  it  will  be."  So  I 
walk  into  the  bath-room,  and  turn  on  a  little  water,  just 


HEALTH,  AS  RELATED  TO  PREACHING.      203 

enough  to  put  rny  feet  and  ankles  into  ;  and  it  is  very 
rare  indeed  that  the  obstinacy  of  my  system  resists  that 
This  operation  brings  the  blood  down  to  the  feet,  and  I 
can  almost  always  get  to  sleep.  If  I  cannot,  I  turn  on 
a  little  more  water  and  sit  down  in  it. 

All  this  is  treating  one's  self  physiologically,  medi- 
cally, so  to  speak,  without  medicine.  It  is  treating 
one's  self  according  to  correct  principles  for  the  sake 
of  procuring  sleep.  If  you  do  not  sleep,  first  or  last, 
your  audience  will ;  and  therefore  it  is  necessary  that 
you  should  sleep  for  them,  that  they  may  keep  awake 
to  hear  what  you  may  have  to  say.  More  than  that, 
when  a  man  has  gone  through  the  paroxysm  of  the 
week,  which  is  Sunday,  it  is  necessary  that  he  should, 
as  soon  as  possible,  be  put  into  a  state  to  go  to  work 
again. 

Therefore  you  should  eat  as  you  would  fire  an  en- 
gine ;  and  sleep,  remembering  that  out  of  sleep  comes 
the  whole  force  of  wakefulness,  with  the  power  you 
have  in  it. 

There  are  many  other  points  that  I  had  in  mind,  but 
I  have  already  taken  so  much  of  your  time  that  I  will 
not  detain  you  longer,  but  will  merely  await  your  ques- 
tions. 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  Will  you  say  a  word  as  to  the  number  of  hours  a  man 
should  spend  in  his  study  ?  How  many  hours  a  day,  at  the 
maximum  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  There  is  no  absolute  rule  that  can 
be  given  in  all  cases.  I  should  think,  however,  that, 
at  the  maximum,  a  man  can  do  as  much  in  four  hours' 


204          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

work  during  the  day  as  he  needs  to  do.  But  it  must 
be  work.  You  can  sometimes  collect  materials  for  your 
work,  although  you  do  not  feel  like  working.  You  can 
ascertain  the  negative,  if  you  cannot  create  the  positive. 
Sometimes  a  man  will  study  a  whole  day  to  find  out 
that  he  cannot  do  a  thing  that  he  was  counting  on. 
But  I  do  not  think  that  any  man  can  originate  matter, 
and  pursue  a  course  of  severe  fruitful  study,  for  more 
than  four  hours  a  day.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  can 
average  that.  I  think  that  ministers  often  attempt 
to  study  too  much.  If  they  would  concentrate  their 
power,  and  use  it  regularly,  they  would  get  out  much 
more  than  by  spreading  it  over  so  much  ground. 

Q.  Should  one  do  much  in  the  way  of  preparing  a  sermon  on 
Monday  ? 

MR.  BEECHER. — No;  unless  he  is  going  to  preach 
on  Monday  night.  Saturday  and  Monday  ought  to  be 
inclined  planes,  the  former  a  very  inclined  plane  up  to 
Sunday,  and  the  latter  an  inclined  plane  away  from  it. 
There  are  a  great  many  things  that  a  man  can  do  on 
Monday,  which  are  necessary  to  be  done,  but  he  should 
not  gorge  his  brain  on  that  day. 

Q.  Ought  a  man  to  prepare  his  sermons  on  Sunday  morning, 
and  make  a  practice  of  it? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  If  the  Lord  showed  him  that  that 
was  the  best  way  of  doing  it,  he  should.  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  mean  to  be  personal  or  not,  but 
that  is  my  habit. 

When  I  went  to  Lawrenceburg,  I  went  thinking 
that  I  would  do  the  best  I  could.  I  had  the  vague 
general  instructions  that  are  given,  to  "  lay  deep  foun- 


HEALTH,  AS  BELATED  TO  PREACHING.      205 

dations,  to  study  thoroughly,  and  to  bring,"  as  old  Dr. 
Humphrey  used  to  say,  "  nothing  but  the  beaten  oil  in- 
to the  sanctuary."  I  felt  that  this  was  connected  with 
regular  and  incessant  study  during  all  the  week.  I 
tried  to  study  so.  I  succeeded  in  studying,  but  I  could 
not  succeed  in  using  what  I  had.  On  Sunday  I  could 
not  do  anything  with  what  I  had  so  laboriously  dug 
out  during  the  week.  Of  course,  I  increased  my  gen- 
eral stock  of  knowledge.  Sometimes  I  would  find  that 
after  working  a  subject  up  all  the  week,  something  else 
would  take  possession  of  me  on  Saturday,  and  I  would 
have  to  preach  it  on  Sunday  to  get  rid  of  it.  I  felt 
ashamed  and  mortified,  and  began  to  fear  I  was  on  the 
way  to  superficiality.  I  made  many  promises,  that,  if 
God  would  help  me,  I  would  make  my  sermons  a  long 
time  beforehand.  I  kept  on  making  promises  and 
breaking  them,  and  the  older  I  grew  the  worse  I  grew  ; 
and  finally,  in  spite  of  prayers  and  resolutions,  I  had 
to  give  it  up  and  prepare  my  sermons  mostly  on  Sun- 
day morning  and  Sunday  afternoon.  But  then  you 
must  recollect  that  this  was  accompanied  by  another 
habit,  —  that  of  regular  study  and  continual  observa- 
tion. I  do  not  believe  that  I  ever  met  a  man  on  the 
street  that  I  did  not  get  from  him  some  element  for  a 
sermon.  I  never  see  anything  in  nature  which  does 
not  work  toward  that  for  which  I  give  the  strength  of 
my  life.  The  material  for  my  sermons  is  all  the  time 
following  me  and  swarming  up  around  me.  I  am 
tracing  out  analogies,  which  I  afterward  take  pains  to 
verify,  to  see  whether  my  views  of  certain  truths  were 
correct.  I  follow  them  out  in  my  study,  and  see  how 
such  things  are  taught  by  others. 


206          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

These  tilings  I  do  not  always  at  the  time  formulate 
for  use,  but  it  is  a  process  of  accumulation.  Now,  by 
the  peculiar  temperament  given  to  me,  I  am  able,  out 
of  this  material,  when  Sunday  comes  and  I  know  what 
I  want  to  do  with  my  congregation,  to  bring  up  some 
instrument  to  do  it  with,  some  view  of  truth  that  will 
include  in  it  a  great  many  of  the  results  reached  long 
before  by  the  practice  I  have  been  describing,  and 
which  are  crystallized  ready  for  use.  In  that  way  I 
make  my  sermons.  Another  man  begins  his  on  Tues- 
day, and  he  would  be  untrue  to  himself  if  he  followed 
any  other  plan.  Every  man  must  find  out  the  way  he 
is  to  work.  I  would  advise  no  young  man  to  follow  my 
method.  It  happens  to  be  my  way,  but  it  is  very  likely 
not  to  be  yours.  You  can  find  out,  by  trying,  which  is 
the  best  way  for  you  to  work. 


IX. 

SERMON-MAKING. 

•OTHING-  could   well   be   more   unlike  the 
preaching    of    the   apostolic    times    than 
that   which    exists    in     the    regular    and 
organized    churches    of    the   modern   days 
in  Christendom. 

I  often  wonder  that  there  has  been  no  sect  formed 
upon  the  basis  of  preaching.  The  Church  has  been 
divided  in  reference  to  baptism,  seeking  a  literal  imita- 
tion of  the  primitive  practice.  It  is  organized  and  re- 
organized on  the  question  of  organization.  The  world 
has  been  full  of  contending  sects  upon  matters  of  exact 
interpretation  of  doctrine.  Almost  the  only  possible 
point  on  which  a  sect  could  be  built,  that  has  been  left 
unoccupied,  is  the  sermon.  Why  have  we  not  had 
sects  declaring  that  we  must  preach  sermons  precisely 
after  the  patterns  of  the  apostolic  sermons  ? 

THE   DISCOURSES   OF  JESUS. 

The  discourses  of  our  Lord  were  in  form,  method, 
and  genius,  eminently  Jewish.  He  was  regarded  by 
the  common  people  as  a  superior  Rabbi.  He  certainly 
adopted  methods  that  were  then  current,  of  teaching, 


208  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

and  illustrating  his  teaching  by  parables,  questioning 
the  multitude,  and  receiving  questions  in  return,  moving 
from  place  to  place,  gathering  his  audience  as  he  went, 
—  in  short,  doing  as  his  countrymen  did,  and  differing 
from  them  only  in  the  superior  manner  of  doing  it. 

MODE   OF   THE   APOSTLES. 

The  early  preaching  of  the  Apostles  was  confined  to 
a  very  narrow  circle.  They  were  Jews.  They  were 
preaching  to  Jews.  The  point  to  which  everything 
tended  was,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  to  stand  in  the  place 
of  the  old  Mosaic  law.  Their  arguments  were  scrip- 
tural and  national.  We  have  but  little  evidence  that 
they  preached  in  any  such  systematic  manner  as  has 
grown  up  in  churches  since  their  time.  Already  they 
found  a  system  of  morality,  a  system  of  public  worship, 
and  a  general  development  of  public  truth.  It  was 
their  business  to  concentrate  all  these  elements  around 
the  person  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  him  to  estab- 
lish a  new  centre  of  influence,  and  from  him  to  derive 
a  living  force  such  as  could  not  proceed  from  the  dry 
formulas  of  the  law. 

CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN   PREAQHTNG. 

The  pulpit,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  has  had  an 
extraordinary  history.  For  one  reason  and  another  it 
has,  in  many  periods  of  time,  been  almost  the  exclusive 
source  of  knowledge  among  the  common  people.  Before 
books  were  either  plenty  or  cheap ;  before  the  era  of 
the  newspaper,  the  magazine,  or  the  tract ;  before 
knowledge  was  poured  in,  as  now,  from  a  hundred 
quarters,  —  an  era  almost  flooded  with  it,  the  people 


SERMON-MAKING.  209 

imbibing  it,  so  to  speak,  through  the  very  pores  of  their 
skin,  —  the  pulpit  was  the  school,  the  legislative  hall, 
the  court  of  law ;  in  short,  the  university  of  the  com- 
mon people.  By  change  of  circumstances,  many  ele- 
ments of  success  in  one  age  cease  to  be  operative  in  an- 
other. Preaching  will  be  proper  or  improper,  wise  or 
successful,  in  proportion  as  it  adapts  itself  to  the  special 
want  of  the  different  peoples  and  the  different  classes 
of  people  in  any  one  time.  It  may  be  said,  in  general, 
that  the  length  and  breadth  of  topics  will  be  in  inverse 
ratio  to  the  civilization  and  refinement  of  the  people ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  pulpit  in  a  rude  neighborhood,  where, 
the  knowledge  of  the  people  will  mainly  be  derived 
from  it,  must  cover  a  broader  ground,  and  must  instruct 
the  people  in  a  hundred  different  things  which  in  civ- 
ilized and  refined  communities  they  learn  from  other 
sources.  As  refinement  increases,  however,  the  tax  laid 
upon  a  minister's  resources  augments  immeasurably.  In 
order  to  maintain  authority  and  influence,  he  must  not 
be  behind  his  own  auditory.  If  knowledge  is  increas- 
ing among  his  people,  every  year  will  require  him  to 
develop  new  resources.  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  pro- 
fession that  demands  so  much  of  a  man  as  that  of  the 
Christian  ministry.  Besides  the  double  oration  on 
Sunday,  the  prayer  meeting,  the  conference  meeting,  and 
various  other  forms  of  neighborhood  meetings,  are  draw- 
ing incessantly  upon  him.  He  is  the  root  and  trunk 
through  which  a  thousand  leaves  are  drawing  sap. 

LABORIOUSNESS   OF   THE   MINISTRY. 

The  lawyer  has  the  facts  of  his  case  made  up  and 
brought  to  him.     He  is  aroused  by  direct  antagonisms. 


210          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

He  is  striving  for  an  end  which  may  be  gained  or  lost 
in  the  compass  of  a  few  hours  or  a  few  days.  Every- 
thing is  real,  visible,  near,  and  stimulating  to  him.  But 
the  Christian  minister,  from  week  to  week,  and  through 
years,  if  his  ministry  be  long  in  the  same  place,  must 
discourse  on  themes  high,  recondite,  and  infinite  in  va- 
riety, and  find  his  incitement  either  in  the  general 
affection  which  he  has  for  his  people,  or  in  the  special 
fascination  of  the  truths  which  he  preaches.  His  mind 
derives  stimulation  wholly  from  internal  sources,  and 
he  gets  but  little  help  from  externals.  In  the  silence 
of  his  study,  or  in  his  solitary  walks,  he  devises  his  own 
plans ;  and  although  his  sermons  are  aimed  at  certain 
external  conditions,  at  particular  classes  of  men,  or 
special  wants,  yet  in  the  course  of  years  it  becomes  dif- 
ficult, week  after  week,  to  educate  the  same  people  in 
the  same  general  direction,  without  repetition  of  one's 
self,  without  growing  formal,  or  falling  into  dull  di- 
dactics. When  I  consider  the  steady  pull  which  the 
pulpit  makes  upon  the  Christian  minister,  I  marvel 
not  that  sermons  are  so  poor,  but  that  they  are  so  good ; 
and  I  think  that  neither  the  pulpit  nor  the  ministry 
have  anything  to  fear  from  a  just  comparison  of  their 
results  with  those  of  any  other  learned  profession  in 
society. 

This  necessity  of  preparing  every  week  fresh  matter 
becomes,  to  unfruitful  minds,  an  excessive  taxation,  and 
drives  men  to  all  manner  of  devices ;  and,  even  at  the 
best,  it  is  no  small  burden  for  a  man  to  carry  through 
the  year  his  pack  of  sermons,  born  or  unborn.  While 
men  are  stimulated  in  the  seminary  to  the  higher  con- 
ceptions of  the  duty  of  preaching,  while  newspapers 


SERMON-MAKING.  211 

are  criticising,  and  hungry  and  fastidious  audiences 
grow  more  and  more  exacting  in  their  demands,  few 
there  are  who  consider  or  sympathize  kindly  with  the 
necessities  that  are  laid  upon  young  men  and  upon  old 
men,  to  bring  forth  an  amount  of  fresh  and  instructive 
matter,  such  as  is  produced  in  no  other  profession  under 
the  sun.  We  do  not  desire  to  have  preaching  made 
less  thorough  or  less  instructive,  but  it  is  desirable  that 
it  should  be  less  burdensome.  Many  and  many  a  min- 
ister is  a  prisoner  all  the  week  to  his  two  sermons. 
Into  them  he  has  poured  his  whole  life,  and  when  they 
are  done  there  is  little  of  him  left  for  pastoral  labors 
and  social  life.  Few  men  there  are  who  are  upborne 
and  carried  forward  by  their  sermons.  Few  men  as- 
cend, as  the  prophet  did,  in  a  chariot  of  fire.  The 
majority  of  preachers  are  consciously  harnessed,  and 
draw  heavily  and  long  at  the  sermon,  which  tugs  behind 
them.  In  every  way,  then,  it  is  desirable  that  preach- 
ing should  be  made  more  easy,  that  men  should  learn 
to  take  advantage  of  their  own  temperament,  and  that 
they  should  learn  the  best  plans  and  methods. 

PREPARATION   OF  THE   SERMON. 

And  first  let  me  speak  of  written  and  unwritten  dis- 
courses. No  man  can  speak  well,  the  substance  of 
whose  sermons  has  not  been  prepared  beforehand. 
Men  talk  of  "  extemporaneous  preaching,"  but  the  only 
part  that  can  properly  be  extemporaneous  is  the  exter- 
nal form.  Sometimes,  indeed,  one  may  be  called  to 
preach  off-hand,  —  ex  tcmpore,  —  and  may  do  it  with 
great  success ;  but  all  such  sermons  will  really  be  the 
results  of  previous  study.  The  matter  must  be  the 


212  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

outgrow tli  of  research,  of  experience,  and  of  thought, 
Most  preachers  have  intuitional  moments,  —  are,  so  to 
speak,  at  times  inspired ;  but  such  moments  are  not 
usual,  and  no  true  inspiration  is  based  upon  ignorance. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  a  question  whether  men  shall 
depend  upon  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  for  their 
matter,  since  all  who  ever  speak  well  must,  in  some 
way,  have  prepared  for  it ;  but  whether,  having  some- 
thing to  teach,  they  shall  reduce  their  instruction  to 
writing,  or  give  it  forth  unwritten. 

ADVANTAGES   AND   DANGERS   OF  WRITTEN    SERMONS. 

Many  considerations  have  been  urged  for  and  against 
written  and  unwritten  sermons ;  and  there  are  advan- 
tages in  both  kinds,  and  both  have  their  disadvantages ; 
so  that  a  true  system  would  seem  to  require  sometimes 
one  mode,  and  sometimes  the  other.  My  own  experi- 
ence teaches  me  that  my  sermons  should  sometimes  be 
written,  but  more  often  unwritten. 

A  written  sermon  will  be  more  likely  to  be  orderly. 
It  can  contain  a  greater  variety  of  material  than  one 
will  be  apt  to  carry  in  his  memory,  or  to  introduce  with 
skill  in  an  extemporaneous  discourse.  It  may  abound 
with  finer  lines  of  thought,  employ  a  more  skillful 
analysis,  and  deal  with  more  subtle  elements.  It  may 
be  made  more  compact,  move  in  straighter  lines,  and 
with  cleaner  execution.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
liable  to  be  uttered  with  stale  fervor.  It  is  likely  to  be 
devoid  of  freshness,  to  lack  naturalness,  by  the  substi- 
tution of  purely  literary  forms,  and  to  be  deficient  in 
flow  and  power.  This  will  be  especially  true  of  the 
sermons  of  mercurial,  versatile  men,  whose  feelings  and 


SERMOX-MAKIXG.  213 

thoughts,  endlessly  changing,  cannot  long  fit  them- 
selves to  the  mold  of  the  sermon  in  which  they  have 
been  expressed,  so  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
inspiration  of  the  composing  hour,  the  delivery  will  be 
artificial.  Cautious  natures  —  men  who  think  slowly 
and  express  themselves  with  a  sort  of  fastidious  con- 
scientiousness —  will  find  the  written  form  of  sermon 
adapted  to  their  nature.  The  responsibility  of  preaching 
is  very  much  alleviated,  in  tender  and  sensitive  minds, 
by  the  consciousness  that  the  sermon  is  all  prepared, 
and  that  little  or  nothing  is  left  to  the  contingencies 
of  the  hour  of  speaking. 

ADVANTAGES   OF   UNWRITTEN   DISCOURSE. 

On  the  other  hand,  men  of  fruitfulness  in  thought,  of 
ardor  in  feeling,  courageous  men,  who  are  helped  by  a 
sense  of  difficulty  and  danger,  will  be  roused  by  the 
necessity  of  exertion,  and  find  their  best  powers  of  elo- 
quence developed  by  their  face-to-face  dealing  with  an 
audience. 

If  a  minister  tarries  long  in  the  same  place,  and 
would  carry  his  people  over  a  broad  field  of  instruction, 
it  would  be  almost  impossible  but  that  he  should  either 
write  his  important  sermons,  or  prepare  careful  briefs, 
which  will  demand  scarcely  less  labor.  Yet  unwritten 
sermons  are  undoubtedly  better  adapted  to  the  ten  thou- 
sand varying  wants  of  the  community  than  are  written 
ones.  There  are  certain  states  of  mind  of  transcendent 
importance  in  preaching,  which  never  come  to  a  preacher 
except  when  he  stands  at  the  focal  point  of  his  audience 
and  feels  their  concentrated  sympathy.  Xo  man  who  is 
tied  up  to  written  lines  can,  in  any  emergency,  throw 


214  LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

the  whole  power  of  his  manhood  upon  an  audience. 
There  is  a  freedom,  a  swiftness,  a  versatility,  and  a 
spiritual  rush  which  comes  to  no  man  but  him  whose 
thoughts  are  free  from  trammels,  and  who,  like  the 
eagle,  far  above  thicket  and  forest,  and  in  the  full 
sunlight,  has  the  whole  wide  air  in  which  to  make  his 
flight. 

The  essential  necessity  is,  that  every  preacher  should 
be  abte  to  speak,  whether  with  or  without  notes.  Christ 
"  spake."  Peter,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  did  not  put  on 
his  specs  and  read;  nor  did  any  other  Apostle  when 
called  on  to  preach.  One's  message  to  his  hearers 
should  be  so  delivered  as  to  bring  his  personality  to 
bear  upon  them ;  he  should  be  in  free  communion  with 
his  audience,  and  receive  from  them  as  well  as  give  to 
them.  There  are  a  thousand  shades  of  thought  reflected 
from  the  faces  of  people.  There  are  a  thousand  slight 
modifications  of  statement  which  one  will  make  as  he 
proceeds,  after  seeing  and  feeling  the  effect  of  what  he 
has  already  said.  There  are  points  of  application  which 
cannot  be  imagined  until  he  stands  before  his  people. 

A  sermon  should  be  carefully  arranged,  and  the 
material  thoroughly  digested.  But,  as  in  a  great  battle 
elaborately  planned  a  hundred  contingencies  will  change 
the  detail  of  its  execution,  or  even  the  whole  plan  of  it, 
so,  in  a  sermon,  a  man  should  be  prepared  for  all  the 
emergencies  which  may  occur.  For,  in  every  sermon, 
the  preacher  should  propose  to  himself  definite  ends  to 
be  gained.  A  sermon  is  not  like  a  Chinese  fire-cracker, 
to  be  fired  off  for  the  noise  which  it  makes.  It  is  the 
hunter's  gun,  and  at  every  discharge  he  should  look  to 
see  his  game  fall.  The  power  is  wasted  if  nothing  be 


SERMON-MAKING.  215 

hit.  There  are  a  thousand  situations  where  a  written 
sermon  would  be  impossible.  There  are  multitudes  in 
every  congregation  to  whom  the  more  elaborate  style  of 
the  written  sermon  is  uncongenial.  A  written  sermon 
is  apt  to  reach  out  to  people  like  a  gloved  hand.  An 
unwritten  sermon  reaches  out  the  warm  arid  glowing 
palm,  bared  to  the  touch. 

At  funerals,  at  conference  meetings,  and  in  neighbor- 
hood gatherings,  where  there  are  a  thousand  incidental 
points  to  which  a  minister  is  called  upon  to  speak,  noth- 
ing will  answer  but  unwritten  discourse.  "Who  could 
go  into  a  rude  neighborhood  of  turbulent  spirits  and 
hope  to  gain  and  hold  their  attention  by  reading  from  a 
manuscript  ?  Who  can  preach  the  gospel  to  the  unlet- 
tered and  the  stupid,  when  the  point  of  the  pen  has 
been  substituted  for  the  living  fire  ?  A  physician  would 
be  ashamed  to  sit  at  the  bedside  of  his  patient,  carrying 
his  library  of  books  with  him.  His  knowledge  must  be 
such,  and  his  use  of  it  so  facile,  that  he  can,  out  of  the 
stores  of  his  own  mind,  readily  adapt  himself  to  every 
varying  phase  of  want.  The  preacher  is  a  physician 
of  the  soul.  With  thousand-fold  reason  should  he  be 
able,  with  adaptable  skill,  to  vary  to  every  form  of 
disposition  the  resources  of  Divine  truth. 

Besides,  the  difference  between  the  ease  and  fruitful- 
ness  of  a  minister  trained  to  preach  without  writing, 
and  of  one  who  is  bound  to  his  notes,  is  incalcula- 
ble. The  task  of  writing  two  sermons  a  week  leaves 
a  conscientious  man  time  and  strength  for  but  little 
else;  whereas  a  man  trained  to  think  on  his  feet,  to 
gather  materials  while  he  walks  and  talks  with  men, 
will  be  likely  to  have  a  far  greater  liberty. 


216  T.iATLUES    ON    PREACHING. 

POINTS   TO   BE   GUARDED   IX   EXTEMPORE   PREACHING. 

In  considering  the  relative  merits  of  written  and 
unwritten  sermons,  we  ought  not  to  make  ourselves 
partisans,  and  select  all  the  good  points  of  one  system 
and  put  them  over  against  all  the  weak  points  of  the 
other.  It  should  be  admitted  that  some  men  of  a 
given  temperament  will  do  better  by  writing,  although 
better  yet  might  have  been  done  by  the  unwritten  ser- 
mon if  they  had,  or  had  trained  in  themselves,  the  abil- 
ity to  execute  it.  Written  sermons  undoubtedly  tend 
to  repress  the  power  of  many  native  speakers.  Most 
men  can  be  trained  to  think  upon  their  feet,  but  by 
disuse  many  lose  the  power  God  has  given  them.  And 
for  such/ or  for  those  who  in  anyway  miss  the  right 
education,  the  written  sermon  will  be  the  best.  The 
temptation  to  slovenliness  in  workmanship,  to  careless 
and  inaccurate  statements,  to  repetition,  to  violation  of 
good  taste,  in  unwritten  sermons,  are  only  arguments  for 
a  more  conscientious  preparation  beforehand.  Xo  man 
can  preach  well,  except  out  of  an  abundance  of  well- 
wrought  material.  Some  sermons  seem  to  start  up  sud- 
denly, soul  and  body,  but  in  fact  they  are  the  product 
of  years  of  experience.  Sermons  may  flash  upon  men 
who  are  called  in  great  emergencies  to  utter  testimony, 
and  the  word  may  grow  in  their  hand,  and,  their  hearts 
kindling,  their  imagination  taking  fire,  the  product  may 
be  something  that  shall  create  wonder  and  amazement 
among  all  that  hear.  It  is  only  the  form,  like  the 
occasion,  that  is  extemporaneous.  No  man  preaches 
except  out  of  the  stores  that  have  been  gathered  in 
him.  As  it  is  possible  for  a  written  sermon  to  be 


SERMON-MAKING.  217 

utterly  unstudied,  unscholarly,  repetitious,  and  inane; 
so,  on  the  other  haiid,  it  is  possible  for  an  unwritten 
sermon  to  be  ripe,  condensed,  methodical,  logical,  swift- 
moving  from  premise  to  conclusion,  and  entirely  con- 
sonant with  good  taste.  But  such  sermons  never  pro- 
ceed from  raw,  unthinking  men  ;  they  are  never  born 
of  ignorance.  And  let  me  say  here,  that,  while  noth- 
ing is  more  admirable  than  what  may  be  called  in- 
tuitions, nothing  more  effective  than  sudden  outbursts 
of  impassioned  oratory,  these  can  never  be  expected 
from  mere  nature.  Though  a  man  be  born  to  gen- 
ius, a  natural  orator  and  a  natural  reasoner,  these 
endowments  give  him  but  the  outlines  of  himself. 
The  filling  up  demands  incessant,  painstaking,  steady 
work. 

Natural  genius  is  but  the  soil,  which,  let  alone,  runs 
to  weeds.  If  it  is  to  bear  fruit  and  harvests  worth 
the  reaping,  no  matter  how  good  the  soil  is,  it  must 
be  ploughed  and  tilled  with  incessant  care.  All  must 
work.  To  some  it  is  laborious  and  dull  like  an  ox's 
tread ;  to  others  it  is  life,  like  the  winged  passage  of 
the  bird  through  the  air;  but  each,  in  his  way,  must 
labor.  The  life  of  a  successful  minister  may  be  cheer- 
ful, yea,  buoyant.  His  work  may  seem  the  highest 
exercise  of  liberty.  It  may  be  impassioned,  facile,  and 
fruitful,  remunerating  him  as  it  goes  on ;  nevertheless, 
there  must  be  incessant  work.  That  is  not  alone  work 
which  brings  sweat  to  the  brow.  Work  may  be  light, 
unburdeusome,  as  full  of  song  as  the  merry  brook 
that  turns  the  miller's  wheel ;  but  no  wheel  is  ever 
turned  without  the  rush  and  the  weight  of  the  stream 

upon  it. 

10 


218  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 


IDEAL   SERMONIZING. 

It  is  not,  then,  a  question  between  prepared  and  un- 
prepared sermons.  It  is  a  question,  simply,  whether  it 
is  best  to  prepare  your  sermons  by  writing,  or  so  to  pre- 
pare them  that  they  are  held  in  solution  in  your  own 
mind.  Which  is  the  better  of  these  will  depend  largely 
upon  your  own  position  in  society,  upon  the  special 
work  it  is  appointed  you  to  perform,  upon  your  own 
temperaments  and  attainments.  But,  considered  ideally, 
he  who  preaches  unwritten  sermons  is  the  true  preach- 
er ;  however  much  you  may  write,  the  tendency  of  all 
such  mechanical  preparation  should  be  towards  the 
ideal  of  the  unwritten  sermon ;  and  throughout  your 
early  training  and  your  after  labor,  you  should  reach 
out  after  that  higher  and  broader  form  of  preaching. 

GENERAL  VARIETY   OF   SERMON   PLANS. 

Now  for  the  next  important  point.  Much  of  the 
effectiveness  of  a  discourse,  as  well  as  the  ease  and  pleas- 
ure of  delivering  it,  depends  upon  the  plan.  Let  me 
earnestly  caution  you  against  the  sterile,  conventional, 
regulation  plans,  that  are  laid  down  in  the  books,  and 
are  frequently  taught  in  the  seminaries.  There  is  no 
one  proper  plan.  You  are  not  like  a  bullet-mold 
made  to  run  bullets  of  the  one  unvarying  shape.  It 
is  quietly  assumed  by  the  teachers  of  formal  sermon- 
izing that  a  sermon  is  to  be  unfolded  from  the  interior, 
or  from  the  nature  of  the  truth  with  which  it  deals. 
That  this  is  one  element,  and  often  the  chief  element, 
that  determines  the  form  of  the  sermon,  is  true ;  but  it 
also  is  true,  that  the  object  to  be  gained  by  preaching  a 


SERMOX-MAKIXG.  219 

sermon  at  all  will  have  as  much  influence  in  giving  it 
proper  plan  as  will  the  nature  of  the  truth  handled,  — 
perhaps  even  more.  Xay,  if  but  one  or  the  other  could ' 
be  adopted,  that  habit  of  working  which  shapes  one's 
sermons  from  the  necessities  of  the  minds  to  which  it  is 
addressed  is  the  more  natural,  the  safer,  and  the  more 
effective. 

Consider  how  various  are  the  methods  by  which  men 
receive  truths.  Most  men  are  feeble  in  logical  power. 
So  far  from  being  benefited  by  an  exact  concatenated 
development  of  truth,  they  are  in  general  utterly  un- 
able to  follow  it.  At  the  second  or  third  step  they  lose 
the  clew.  The  greatest  number  of  men,  particularly 
uncultivated  people,  receive  their  truth  by  facts  placed 
in  juxtaposition  rather  than  in  philosophical  sequence. 
Thus,  a  line  of  fact  or  a  series  of  parables  will  be 
better  adapted  to  most  audiences  than  a  regular  unfolding 
of  a  train  of  thought  from  the  germinal  point  to  the 
fruitful  end.  The  more  select  portion  of  an  intelligent 
congregation,  on  the  other  hand,  sympathize  with  truth 
delivered  in  its  highest  philosophic  forms.  There  is  a 
distinct  pleasure  to  them  in  the  evolution  of  an  argu- 
ment. They  rejoice  to  see  a  structure  built  up,  tier 
upon  tier,  and  story  upon  story.  They  glow  with  de- 
light as  the  long  chain  is  welded,  link  by  link.  And  if 
the  preacher  himself  be  of  this  mind,  ami  if  he  receive 
the  commendations  of  the  most  thoughtful  and  cultured 
of  his  people,  it  is  quite  natural  that  lie  should  fall 
wholly  under  the  influence  of  this  style  of  sermoniz- 
ing ;  so  he  will  feed  one  mouth,  and  starve  a  hundred. 
In  this  way  it  is,  and  especially  in  large  cities,  that 
congregations  are  sifted  by  a  certain  process  of  elective 


220          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

affinity.  Those  will  come  to  the  church  who  like  the 
style  of  the  sermon,  and  those  will  drop  out  who  have 
no  sympathy  with  it ;  and  thus  we  have  churches  of 
emotion,  churches  of  taste,  and  churches  of  philosophi- 
cal theology;  whereas  each  pulpit  should  give  some- 
what of  everything. 

The  emotions  of  some  men  are  roused  through  the 
inspiration  of  the  intellect  mainly ;  but  there  are 
others  whose  intellect,  although  it  may  be  the  channel 
through  which  the  incitement  flows,  is  not  itself  roused 
to  its  fullest  activity  until  the  feelings  come  to  inspire 
it.  We  hear  much  of  preaching  to  the  understanding 
and  of  preaching  to  the  feelings,  and  it  is  discussed 
which  is  the  better  way ;  but  in  some  men  you  cannot 
reach  the  understanding  until  you  have  reached  the 
feelings,  and  in  others  you  cannot  reach  the  feelings 
until  you  have  taken  possession  of  the  understanding. 
A  minute  study  of  the  habits  of  men's  minds  will  teach 
the  preacher  how  to  plan  his  sermon  so  as  to  gain 
entrance. 

As  it  is,  sermons  are  too  often  cast  in  one  mold. 
"Week  after  week,  month  after  month,  year  after  year, 
when  the  text  is  announced,  every  child  in  the  congre- 
gation almost,  as  well  as  the  minister  himself,  can  tell 
that  it  will  be  divided  into  "  First,"  "  Second,"  and 
"  Third,"  together  with,  "  Then  certain  practical  obser- 
vations." But  what  would  be  thought  of  one  who 
should  seek  to  enter  every  house  upon  a  street  or  in  a 
city  with  a  single  key,  fitted  to  but  one  kind  of  lock  ? 
The  minister  is  the  "  strong  man,"  armed  in  a  better 
sense  than  that  of  the  parable,  and  it  is  his  business  to 
enter  every  house,  to  bind  the  man  of  sin,  and  to  despoil 


SERMON-MAKING.  221 

him.  But  every  door  must  be  entered  by  a  key  that  fits 
that  door.  The  minister  is  a  universal,  spiritual  burg- 
lar. He  enters,  not  to  despoil  good,  but  evil.  He 
enters,  not  to  take  possession,  but  to  dispossess  evil 
He  enters,  not  to  deprive  men  of  their  valuable  effects, 
but  to  restore  to  them  that  which  their  Father  left  for 
their  inheritance,  and  which  has  been  withheld  from 
them  by  the  Adversary.  He  must  seek  entrance,  in 
every  case,  where  God  has  put  the  door.  In  some  men 
there  is  a  broad  and  double  open  door,  standing  in 
the  front  and  inviting  entrance.  The  familiar  path  in 
other  cases  is  seen  to  wind  around  to  the  side  door. 
There  be  those  industrious  drudges  who  never  live  out 
of  their  kitchens,  and  if  one  would  find  them  in  ordi- 
nary hours,  he  must  e'en  go  around  to  the  back  door. 
If  one  lives  in  the  cellar,  he  must  be  sought  through 
the  cellar. 

It  is  this  necessity  of  adaptation  to  the  innumerable 
phases  of  human  nature  that  reacts  upon  the  sermon, 
and  determines  the  form  which  it  shall  take.  If  it  were 
possible,  never  have  two  plans  alike. 

It  may  be  well,  to-day,  to  preach  an  intellectual 
theme  by  an  analytic  process  ;  but  that  is  a  reason  why, 
on  the  following  Sunday,  an  intellectual  theme  should 
be  treated  by  a  synthetic  process.  If  you  have  preached 
the  truth  by  the  ways  of  statement  and  proof,  you  have 
then  a  reason  for  following  it  with  a  sermon  that  as- 
sumes the  truth,  and  appeals  directly  to  the  moral  con- 
sciousness. A  didactic  sermon  is  all  the  stronger  if  it 
follows  in  strong  contrast  with  a  sermon  to  the  feel- 
ings. If  you  have  preached  to-day  to  the  heart 
through  the  imagination,  to-morrow  you  are  to  preach 


222  LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  the  heart  through  the  reason ;  and  so  the  sermon, 
like  the  flowers  of  the  field,  is  to  take  on  innumerable 
forms  of  blossoming.  When  you  have  finished  your 
sermon,  not  a  man  of  your  congregation  should  be 
unable  to  tell  you,  distinctly,  what  you  have  done  ;  but 
when  you  begin  a  sermon,  no  man  in  the  congregation 
ought  to  be  able  to  tell  you  what  you  are  going  to  do. 
All  these  cast-iron  frames,  these  stereotyped  plans  of 
sermons,  are  the  devices  of  the  Devil,  and  of  those 
most  mischievous  devils  of  the  pulpit,  formality  and 
stupidity. 

THE   NATURAL  METHOD. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  select  your  text  and  unfold  pre- 
cisely its  meaning  and  its  context,  and  then-  to  deduce 
from  it  certain  natural  lines  of  thought.  But  this  is 
only  one  way.  A  descriptive  sermon,  an  argumentative 
sermon,  a  poetical  sermon,  and  a  sermon  of  sentiment, 
have,  severally,  their  own  genius  of  form.  I  need  not 
tell  you  that  variety  is,  in  the  best  sense  of  that  term, 
the  "  natural "  method.  In  nature,  a  few  elements,  by 
various  permutations  and  combinations,  produce  infi- 
nite varieties,  endless  contrasts,  and  constant  changes. 
Nature  is  always  fresh,  and  never  stales  upon  the  taste. 

Besides  all  this,  every  preacher  will  find  that  some- 
thing is  to  be  allowed  for  the  way  in  which  his  own 
mind  works.  A  man  naturally  inclined  to  mysticism 
has  his  whole  temperament  arrayed  against  the  anatom- 
ical method  of  sermonizing.  The  man  of  a  dry  intel- 
lectual nature,  who  sees  all  things  cold,  clear,  and  color- 
less, cannot  imitate  the  man  whose  mind  lives  under 
an  arch  of  perpetual  rainbows.  So  then,  because  the 


SERMON-MAKING.  223 

plans  of  sermons  must  be  affected  both  by  the  nature 
of  the  truth  itself,  by  the  nature  of  the  man  himself, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  ends  sought  in  the  sermon 
and  the  nature  of  the  people  to  whom  the  sermon  is 
addressed,  you  will  perceive  the  absurdity  of  attempt- 
ing any  one  method  of  laying  out  a  sermon,  and  the 
wisdom  of  seeking  endless  diversity  of  method  as  well 
as  of  subject. 

SUGGESTIVE  PREACHING. 

A  respectable  source  of  failure  is  conscientious  thor- 
oughness. It  is  true  that  it  is  the  office  of  the 
preacher  to  furnish  thought  for  his  hearers,  but  it 
is  no  less  his  duty  to  excite  thought.  Thus  we 
give  thought  to  breed  thought.  If,  then,  a  preacher 
elaborates  his  theme  until  it  is  utterly  exhausted,  leav- 
ing nothing  to  the  imagination  and  intellect  of  his 
hearers,  he  fails  to  produce  that  lively  activity  in  their 
minds  which  is  one  of  the  best  effects  of  right  preach- 
ing; they  are  merely  recipients.  But  under  a  true 
preaching,  the  pulpit  and  the  audience  should  be  car- 
rying on  the  subject  together,  one  in  outline,  and  the 
other  with  subtle  and  rapid  activity,  filling  it  up  by 
imagination,  suggestion,  and  emotion.  Don't  make 

O  '  OO 

your  sermons  too  good.  That  sermon,  then,  has  been 
overwrought  and  overdone  which  leaves  nothing  for  the 
mind  of  the  hearer  to  do.  A  sermon  in  outline  is 
often  far  more  effective  than  a  sermon  fully  thought 
out  and  delivered  as  a  completed  thing.  Painters  often 
catch  the  likeness  of  their  subject  when  they  have 
sketched  in  the  picture  only,  and  paint  it  out  when 
they  are  finishing  it ;  and  many  and  many  a  sermon,  if 


224          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

it  had  been  but  sketched  upon  the  minds  of  men,  would 
have  conveyed  a  much  better  idea  of  the  truth  than  is 
produced  by  its  elaborate  painting  and  filling  up.  This 
is  the  secret  of  what  is  called  "  suggestive  preaching," 
and  it  is  also  the  secret  of  those  sermons  which  are 
called  "  good,  but  heavy."  There  are  no  m^re  thorough 
sermons  in  the  English  language,  and  none  more  hard 
to  read,  than  those  of  Barrow,  who  was  called  an  unfair 
preacher,  because  he  left  nothing  for  those  to  say  that 
came  after  him.  You  must  be  careful  not  to  surfeit 
people;  leave  room  for  their  imagination  and  spirit  to 
work.  Don't  treat  them  as  sacks  to  be  filled  from  a 
funnel  Aim  to  make  them  spiritually  active,  —  self- 
helpfuL 

EXPOSITORY  PREACHING. 

Without  unfolding  and  commenting  upon  the  ordi- 
nary modes  of  sermonizing,  I  pass  on  to  say  that  a  much 
larger  use  should  be  made  of  expository  preaching  than 
has  been  customary  in  our  churches.  It  is  an  admira- 
ble way  of  familiarizing  the  people  with  the  very  text 
of  Scripture.  There  is  an  authority,  which  every  audi- 
ence recognizes,  in  the  word  of  God  as  delivered  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptiire,  which  does  not  belong  to  ordinary 
human  teaching.  Above  all,  the  Bible  is  the  best  ex- 
ample in  literature  of  the  admirable  mingling  of  fact, 
illustration,  appeal,  argument,  poetry,  and  emotion,  not 
in  their  artificial  forms,  but  conformably  to  nature.  The 
Bible  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  "  revelation  "  in  contra- 
distinction to  nature ;  but  this  is  done  by  those  who 
degrade  nature,  and  regard  it  as  something  low  and 
imperfect.  I  regard  the  Bible  as  the  noblest  book  of 


SERMON -MAKING.  225 

nature  that  has  ever  existed  in  life.  Its  very  power  is 
in  that  it  is  an  exposition  of  nature,  wider  and  deeper 
than  any  that  philosophy  has  attained  to ;  that  is  one 
reason  why  the  Bible  is  found,  as  philosophy  progres- 
sively ascertains  the  truths  of  nature,  to  conform  to 
them  with  singular  adaptation;  and  that  is  a  reason, 
too,  why  the  Bible  becomes  more  and  more  powerful  as 
it  is  better  interpreted  and  its  innermost  meaning  is 
made  clear  by  the  discoveries  of  men  in  the  great  field 
of  natural  science.  The  Bible  is  like  a  field  in  which 
is  hidden  gold.  Men  who  have  ploughed  over  and 
over  the  surface  and  raised  perishable  crops  therefrom 
have  failed  to  find  and  secure  that  very  precious,  ore 
which  is  its  chief  value. 

It  will  surprise  one  to  see  what  wealth  and  diversity 
of  topics  will  come  up  for  illustration  in  discussion, 
by  means  of  expository  preaching.  A  thousand  subtle 
suggestions  and  a  thousand  minute  points  of  human 
experience,  not  large  enough  for  the  elaborate  discus- 
sion of  a  sermon,  and  yet  like  the  little  screws  in  a 
watch,  indispensable  to  the  right  action  of  the  machin- 
ery of  life,  can  be  touched  and  turned  to  advantage  in 
expository  preaching.  There  are  many  topics  which, 
from  the  excitement  of  the  times  and  from  the  preju- 
dice of  the  people,  it  would  be  difficult  to  discuss 
topically  in  the  pulpit,  yet,  taken  in  the  order  in  whicji 
they  are  found  in  Sacred  Writ,  they  can  be  handled 
with  profit,  and  without  danger.  The  Bible  touches 
all  sides  of  human  life  and  experience,  and  scriptural 
exposition  gives  endless  opportunities  of  hitting  folks 
who  need  hitting.  The  squire  can  hardly  stamp  out 
of  church  for  a  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

10*  o 


226  LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

While  exegetical  and  expository  preaching  have  ele- 
ments in  them  which  attract  arid  satisfy  the  scholar 
and  the  thinker,  they,  at  the  same  time,  by  a  strange 
harmony  in  diversity,  have  just  that  disconnectedness 
and  variety  of  topic  in  juxtaposition  which  seem  best 
suited  to  the  wants  of  uncultivated  minds.  I  know  an 
eminent  pastor  in  Ohio,  who,  probably,  n£ver  in  his  lite 
preached  any  other  sermon  than  an  expository  one. 
The  Bible  in  his  hands,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  was  his 
only  sermon.  During  a  long  pastorate,  he  went  through 
the  Book  from  beginning  to  end,  and  often,  and  the 
fruit  of  his  ministry  justified  his  method.  It  was 
proverbial  that  no  people  were  more  -thoroughly  fur- 
nished with  knowledge,  with  habits  of  discrimination 
in  thought,  or  were  more  rich  in  spiritual  feeling. 

CHEAT   SEKMONS. 

There  is  one  temptation  of  which  I  have  spoken  to 
you  before,  but  I  must  be  allowed  to  give  you  a  special 
and  earnest  caution  on  the  subject  of  "  great "  sermons. 
The  themes  you  will  handle  are  often  of  transcendent 
greatness.  There  will  be  times  continually  recurring, 
in  which  you  will  feel  earnestly  the  need  of  great 
power  ;  but  the  ambition  of  constructing  great  sermons 
is  guilty  and  foolish  in  no  ordinary  degree.  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  man  ever  made  a  great  sermon  who 
set  out  to  do  that  thing.  Sermons  that  are  truly  great 
come  of  themselves.  They  spring  from  sources  deeper 
than  vanity  or  ambition.  When  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
is  laid  upon  the  heart,  and  its  energies  are  aroused 
under  a  Divine  inspiration,  there  may  then  be  given 
forth  mighty  thoughts  in  burning  words,  and  from  the 


SERMON-MAKING.  227 

formative  power  of  this  inward  truth  the  outward  form 
may  be  generated,  perfect,  as  is  the  language  of  a  poem. 
Perhaps  I  should  have  saids  Iww  sermons,  rather  than 
great  sermons,  —  sermons  adapted  to  create  surprise, 
admiration,  and  praise,  sermons  as  full  of  curiosities  as 
a  peddler's  pack,  which  the  proud  owners  are  accustomed 
to  take  in  all  their  exchanges  and  travelings  as  their 
especial  delight  and  reliance.  Often  they  are  baptized 
with  fanciful  names.  There  is  the  "Dew  upon  the 
Grass  "  sermon,  and  the  "  Trumpet "  sermon,  and  the 
sermon  of  the  "  Fleece,"  and  the  "  Dove  and  Eagle " 
sermon,  and  so  on.  Such  discourses  are  relied  upon  to 
give  men  their  reputation.  To  construct  such  sermons, 
men  oftentimes  labor  night  and  day,  and  gather  into 
them  all  the  scraps,  ingenuities,  and  glittering  illus- 
trations of  a  lifetime.  They  are  the  pride  and  the  joy 
of  the  preacher's  heart ;  but  they  bear  the  same  relation 
to  a  truly  great  sermon  as  a  kaleidoscope,  full  of  glitter- 
ing bits  of  glass,  bears  to  the  telescope,  which  unveils 
the  glory  of  the  stellar  universe.  These  are  the  Nebu- 
chadnezzar sermons,  over  which  the  vain  preacher  stand?, 
saying,  "  Is  not  this  great  Babylon  that  I  have  builded 
for  the  house  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  might  of  my 
power,  and  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty  1 "  Would  to 
God  that  these  preachers,  like  Nebuchadnezzar,  might 
go  to  grass  for  a  time,  if,  like  him,  they  would  return 
sane  and  humble ! 

A  sermon  is  a  weapon  of  war.  Not  the  tracery  en- 
ameled upon  its  blade,  not  the  jewelry  that  is  set 
within  its  hilt,  not  the  name  that  is  stamped  upon  it, 
but  its  power  in  the  day  of  battle,  must  be  the  test  of 
its  merits.  No  matter  how  unbalanced,  how  irregular 


228  LECTURES   ON   PREACHING. 

and  rude,  that  is  a  great  sermon  which  has  power  to  do 
great  things  with  the  hearts  of  men.  No  matter  how 
methodical,  philosophic,  exquisite  in  illustration,  or 
faultless  in  style,  that  is  a  poor  and  weak  sermon  that 
has  no  power  to  deliver  men  from  evil  and  to  exalt 


them  in  goodness. 


STYLE. 


Style  is  only  the  outside  form  which  thoughts  take 
on  when  embodied  in  language.  Style,  then,  must 
always  conform  to  the  nature  of  the  man  who  employs 
it ;  as  the  saying  goes,  "  Style  is  the  man."  In  general, 
it  may  be  said,  that  is  the  best  style  which  is  the  least 
obtrusive,  which  lets  through  the  truth  most  nearly  in 
its  absolute  purity.  The  truths  of  religion,  in  a  sim- 
ple and  transparent  style,  shine  as  the  sunlight  on 
the  fields  and  mountains,  revealing  all  things  in  their 
proper  forms  and  natural  colors ;  but  an  artificial  and 
gorgeous  style,  like  a  cathedral  window,  may  let  in 
some  light,  yet  in  blotches  of  purple  and  blue  that  spot 
the  audience,  and  produce  grotesqueness  and  unnatural 
effects. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  preacher  should  have  a  copious 
vocabulary,  and  a  facility  in  the  selection  and  use  of 
words ;  and  to  this  end  he  should  read  much,  giving 
close  attention  to  the  words  and  phrases  used  by  the 
best  authors,  not  for  servile  copying  and  memorizing, 
but  that  these  elements  may  become  assimilated  with 
his  own  mind,  as  a  part  of  it,  ready  for  use  when  the 
need  comes. 

He  should  also  have  an  ear  for  strong  and  terse, 
but  rhythmical  sentences,  which  flow  without  jolt 


SERMON-MAKING.  229 

and  jar.  Above  all  other  men,  the  preacher  should 
avoid  what  may  be  called  a  literary  style,  as  distin- 
guished from  a  natural  one ;  and  by  a  "  literary  style," 
technically  so  called,  I  understand  one  in  which  abound 
these  two  elements, —  the  artificial  structure  of  sentences, 
and  the  use  of  words  and  phrases  peculiar  to  literature 
alone,  and  not  to  common  life.  Involved  sentences, 
crooked,  circuitous,  and  parenthetical,  no  matter  how 
musically  they  may  be  balanced,  are  prejudicial  to  a 
facile  understanding  of  the  truth.  Never  be  grandilo- 
quent when  you  want  to  drive  home  a  searching  truth. 
Don't  whip  with  a  switch  that  has  the  leaves  on,  if  you 
want  to  tingle.  A  good  fireman  will  send  the  water 
through  as  short  and  straight  hose  as  he  can.  No  man 
in  his  senses  would  desire  to  have  the  stream  flow 
through  coil  after  coil,  winding  about.  It  loses  force 
by  length  and  complexity.  Many  a  sermon  has  its 
sentences  curled  over  it  like  locks  of  hair  upon  a 
beauty's  head.  I  have  known  men  whose  style  was 
magnificent  when  they  were  once  thoroughly  mad. 
Temper  straightened  out  all  the  curls,  and  made  their 
sentences  straight  as  a  lance.  It  is  a  foolish  and 
unwise  ambition  to  introduce  periphrastic  or  purely 
literary  terms  where  they  can  possibly  be  avoided. 
Go  right  ahead.  Don't  run  round  for  your  meaning. 
Long  sentences  may  be  good,  but  not  tiristing  ones. 
Many  otherwise  good  sermons  are  useless  because  they 
don't  get  on.  They  go  round,  and  round,  and  round, 
and  always  keep  coming  back  to  the  same  place. 

There  is  a  charm  in  some  styles,  an  unwearying 
freshness  and  sweetness,  which  men  find  it  difficult  to 
account  for.  I  think,  upon  analysis,  it  may  be  found 


230          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

that  such  styles  are  based  upon  vernacular  words  and 
home-bred  idioms.  At  Pentecost  every  man  heard  in 
his  own  tongue  wherein  he  was  born.  Use  homely  words, 
—  those  which  people  are  used  to,  and  which  suggest 
many  tilings  to  them.  The  words  that  we  heard  in  our 
childhood  store  up  in  themselves  sweetness  and  flavor 
that  make  them  precious  all  our  life  long  afterwards. 
Words  borrowed  from  foreign  languages,  and  words  that 
belong  especially  to  science  and  learning  and  literature, 
have  very  little  suggestion  in  them  to  the  common 
people.  But  home-bred  words,  when  they  strike  the 
imagination,  awaken  ineffable  and  tremulous  memories, 
obscure,  subtle,  and  yet  most  powerful.  Words  register 
up  in  themselves  the  sum  of  man's  life  and  experience. 
The  words  which,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  have 
been  the  vehicles  of  love,  trust,  praise,  hope,  joy,  anger, 
and  hate,  are  not  simply  words,  but,  like  paper,  are  what 
they  are  by  virtue  of  the  thing  written  on  them.  He 
who  uses  mainly  the  Anglo-Saxon  vocabulary,  giving 
preference  to  the  idioms  and  phrases  which  are  homely, 
will  have  a  power  which  cannot  be  derived  from  any 
other  use  of  human  language.  Such  language  is  an 
echo  in  the  experience  of  men;  and  as  a  phrase  in  a 
mountainous  country,  when  roundly  uttered,  goes  on 
repeating  itself  from  peak  to  peak,  running  in  alternate 
reverberations  through  the  whole  valley,  so  a  truth  runs 
through  all  the  ranges  of  memory  in  the  mind  of  the 
hearer,  not  the  less  real  because  so  extremely  rapid  and 
subtle  as  to  defy  analysis.  The  words  themselves,  full 
of  secret  suggestions  and  echoes,  multiply  the  meaning 
in  the  minds  of  men,  and  make  it  even  more  in  the 
recipient  than  it  was  in  the  speaker.  Words  are  to  the 


SERMON-MAKING.  231 

thought  what  musical  notes  are  to  the  melodies.  As  an 
instance  of  contrasted  style,  let  one  read  the  immortal 
allegory  of  John  Bunyan  in  contrast  with  the  grandiose 
essays  of  Dr.  Johnson.  Bunyan  is  to-day  like  a  tree 
planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his 
fruit  in  season ;  his  leaf  shall  not  wither.  Johnson, 
with  all  his  glory,  lies  like  an  Egyptian  king,  buried 
and  forgotten  in  the  pyramid  of  his  fame. 

GENERAL   HINTS — PROFESSIONAL   MANNERS. 

There  are  a  few  cautions  which  may  be  worth  con- 
sidering. Avoid  a  professional  manner.  There  is  no 
reason  why  a  clergyman  should  be  anything  but  an 
earnest  Christian  gentleman.  I  shall  not  quarrel  with 
the  preacher  who  employs  a  symbolic  dress  for  some 
special  religious  reason,  but  no  man  should  dress  him- 
self simply  for  the  purpose  of  saying, "  I  am  a  preacher." 
The  highest  character  in  which  a  preacher  can  stand  is 
that  of  simple  Christian  manhood.  It  is  not  the  things 
in  which  he  differs  from  his  fellow-men  by  which  he 
will  gain  power.  It  is  by  the  things  in  which  he  will 
be  in  sympathy  with  them.  There  is  great  significance 
in  that  sentence,  "  It  behooved  him  to  be  made  like 
unto  his  brethren,  that  he  might  be  a  merciful  and 
faithful  high  priest,  in  things  pertaining  to  God."  It  is 
not  a  man's  business,  then,  to  separate  himself,  by  dress 
or  by  manner,  from  the  common  people.  It  is  his 
humanity,  and  his  sympathy  with  their  humanity,  it  is 
his  sameness  with  them,  both  in  weaknesses  and  in 
sins,  in  aspirations  and  partial  attainment,  that  give 
him  his  power.  The  power  of  a  preacher  is  the  power 
of  a  brother  among  his  brethren.  It  always  seems 


232          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

to  me,  therefore,  that  the  putting  on  of  a  professional 
dress  is  the  hiding  of  one's  power.  Walk  into  your 
pulpit  as  you  would  enter  an  ordinary  room.  Don't  go 
there  thinking  of  yourself,  your  coat,  your  hair,  your 
step.  Don't  go  there  as  a  "  man  of  God."  Never  be  a 
puppet,  —  most  of  all,  a  religious  puppet.  I  abhor  the 
formal,  stately,  and  solemn  entrance  of  a  man  whose 
'whole  appearance  seems  to  call  upon  all  to  see  how 
holy  he  is,  and  how  intensely  he  is  a  minister  of  the 
gospel.  Nor  can  I  avoid  a  feeling  of  displeasure  akin 
to  that  which  Christ  felt  when  he  condemned  prayers 
at  the  street  corners,  when  I  see  a  man  bow  down  him- 
self in  the  pulpit  to  say  his  prayers,  on  first  entering. 
Many  men  sacrifice  the  best  part  of  themselves  for 
what  is  called  the  dignity  of  the  pulpit.  They  are  afraid 
to  speak  of  common  things.  They  are  afraid  to  introduce 
home  matters ;  things  of  which  men  think  and  speak, 
and  in  which,  every  day,  a  part  of  their  lives  consist, 
are  thought  not  to  be  of  enough  dignity  for  the  pulpit. 
And  so  the  interests  of  men  are  sacrificed  to  an  idol. 
For  when  the  pulpit  is  of  more  importance  than  the 
joys  and  the  sorrows,  the  hopes  and  the  fears,  the  mi- 
nute temptations  and  frets  of  daily  life,  it  has  become 
an  idol,  and,  to  feed  its  dignity,  bread  is  taken  from  the 
mouths  of  the  children  and  of  the  common  people. 
There  are  few  things  that  have  power  to  make  men 
good  or  bad,  happy  or  unhappy,  that  it  is  not  the  duty 
of  the  pulpit  to  handle.  This  superstition  of  dignity 
has  gone  far  to  make  the  pulpit  a  mere  skeleton.  Men 
hear  plenty  from  the  pulpit  about  everything  except 
the  stubborn  facts  of  their  every-day  life,  and  the  real 
relation  of  these  immediate  things  to  the  vast  themes 


SERMON-MAKING.  233 

of  the  future.  There  is  much  about  the  divine  life,  but 
very  little  about  human  life.  There  is  much  about  the 
future  victory,  but  very  little  about  the  present  battles 
There  is  a  great  deal  about  divine  government,  but 
there  is  very  little  about  the  human  governments  under 
which  men  are  living,  and  the  duties  which  arise  under 
those  governments  for  every  Christian  man.  There  is 
a  great  deal  about  immortality  and  about  the  immortal 
soul,  but  very  little  about  these  mortal  bodies,  that  go 
so  far  to  influence  the  destiny  of  the  immortal  souls. 

A  sermon,  like  a  probe,  must  follow  the  wound  into 
all  its  intricate  passages.  Nothing  is  too  minute  for 
the  surgeon  or  for  the  physician ;  nothing  should  be  too 
common  or  too  familiar  for  the  preacher. 

PROFESSIONAL  ASSOCIATION. 

Beware  of  an  exclusive  association  with  your  kind. 
It  is  a  good  thing  for  ministers  to  meet  together  to 
cheer  and  instruct  each  other,  but  there  is  danger  that 
they  will  fall  into  such  exclusive  professional  sym- 
pathy that  they  will  see  everything  from  a  ministerial 
stand-point.  It  would  be  of  great  value  to  ministers  if 
they  saw  all  the  themes  that  they  discuss  with  the  eyes 
of  common  men,  —  of  the  wicked  and  the  abandoned, 
of  the  weak  and  the  strong,  of  the  learned  and  the 
unlearned,  of  working-men,  of  meditative  women,  and 
of  little  children.  On  every  theme  which  the  preacher 
handles  is  turned  the  thought  of  ten  thousand  men  in 
the  community  around  him.  It  were  worth  his  while 
to  reap  their  harvest-fields  as  well  as  his  own.  But, 
chiefly,  this  universal  sympathy  with  humanity  is 
valuable  because  it  produces  a  larger  sympathy  and 


234          LECTURES  ON  PREACHIN&. 

a  more  generous  manhood,  and  reinvigorates  those  ele- 
ments in  the  preacher  which  ally  him  to  his  kind,  and 
from  which  he  is  to  derive  one  great  element  of  success. 

LENGTH   OF   SERMONS. 

One  word  as  to  the  length  of  sermons.  That  never 
should  be  determined  by  the  clock,  but  upon  broader 
considerations,  —  short  sermons  for  small  subjects,  and 
long  sermons  for  large  subjects.  It  does  not  require 
that  sermons  should  be  of  any  uniform  length.  Let  one 
be  short,  and  the  next  long,  and  the  next  intermediate. 
It  is  true  that  it  is  bad  policy  to  fatigue  men,  but  short- 
ness is  not  the  only  remedy  for  that.  The  true  way  to 
shorten  a  sermon  is  to  make  it  more  interesting.  The 
object  of  preaching  is  not  to  let  men  out  of  church  at 
a  given  time.  The  length  and  quality  of  a  sermon 
must  be  determined  by  the  objects  which  it  has  in 
view.  Now  you  cannot  discuss  great  themes  in  a  short 
compass,  nor  can  you  by  driblets  —  by  sermons  of  ten 
or  twenty  minutes  —  train  an  audience  to  a  broad  con- 
sideration of  high  themes.  There  is  a  medium.  A 
minister  ought  to  be  able  to  hold  an  audience  for  an 
hour  in  the  discussion  of  great  themes ;  and  the  habit 
of  ample  time  and  ample  discussion,  even  if  occasionally 
it  carries  with  it  the  incidental  evil  of  weariness,  will, 
in  the  long  run,  produce  a  nobler  class  of  minds  and 
a  higher  type  of  education  than  can  possibly  belong 
to  the  school  of  dwarfed  sermonizers. 

TRUST  YOUR  AUDIENCES. 

Do  not  undervalue  the  capacity  of  the  common  peo- 
ple. ^Children,  even,  will  follow  discussions  with  interest 


SERMON-MAKING.  235 

which  seem  to  be  far  above  their  heads.  Before  I  was 
ten  years  old,  I  remember  that  discussions  on  the  subject 
of  fore-ordination,  free-will,  and  decrees,  held  me  with  a 
perfect  fascination.  The  Bible  was  made  for  common 
people,  and  the  themes  that  are  in  it  are  comprehensible 
by  common  people ;  and  those  sermons  which  cannot  be 
understood  with  profit  by  the  common  people  of  your 
congregation  will  probably  be  of  little  profit  to  any- 
body, not  even  to  yourself. 

"While  there  is  a  principle  of  adaptation  to  be 
observed  and  applied,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  great  bulk  of  a  minister's  work  does  not  consist 
in  the  unfolding  of  abstruse  problems  or  mysteries, 
but  the  themes  which  he  mainly  handles  are  those 
which  appeal  to  the  great  moral  instincts  and  to  that 
fundamental  common  sense  belonging  to  all  men.  You 
need  not  fear  to  carry  an  elaborate  argument  down 
to  the  common  people.  You  need  not  fear  to  address 
a  sermon  of  emotion  and  homely  application  to  the  most 
cultivated  audience.  Let  a  man  preach  in  the  city  as  he 
would  in  the  country.  Let  a  man  preach  in  the  country 
as  he  would  in  the  city.  Preach  before  a  cultivated 
audience  as  you  would  before  an  audience  of  farmers, 
and  preach  before  a  congregation  of  farmers  as  you 
would  before  a  congregation  of  students.  It  is  true 
that,  as  I  have  already  explained,  you  must  vary  your 
discourses  from  week  to  week  for  purposes  of  adaptation ; 
but  the  great  subject-matter  is  common  to  all  men. 

SUMMARY. 

The  most  effective  sermonizing,  then,  and  that  which 
is  to  be  aimed  at  in  general,  is  the  unwritten,  rather  than 


236          LECTUEES  ON  PREACHING. 

the  written;  the  plans  must  be  of  constant  variety  as 
adapted  to  the  truth  preached,  the  end  to  be  gained,  the 
audience  to  be  affected,  and  the  temperament  of  the 
preacher  ;  the  sermon  should  be  rather  suggestive  than 
exhaustive  in  treatment,  exposition  of  the  Bible  holding 
a  large  place  in  your  scheme,  and  show-sermons  utterly 
avoided  ;  simplicity  of  style,  both  in  language  and  man- 
ner, is  the  shortest  road  to  success  ;  and  the  earlier  the 
preacher  learns  by  association  and  sympathy  with  his 
people  to  interest  them  in  him  and  his  work,  and  to  give 
them  always  the  best  that  he  can  do,  the  sooner  will 
lie  get  upon  them  the  hold  by  which  he  shall  draw  them 
toward  God  and  the  higher  life. 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  What  would  you  suggest  as  to  the  proportion  of  written  and 
unwritten  sermons  to  be  preached  through  one's  ministry  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  No  general  rule  can  be  given. 
About  one  third  written  to  two  thirds  unwritten.  But 
be  sure  that  you  know  how  to  preach. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  the  benefit  of  using  books  of  sermon- 
plans  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  They  will  help  you  when  you  know 
how  to  use  them ;  that  is,  when  you  don't  need  them. 
Before  that  time  don't  smother  yourself  with  them. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  the  propriety  or  advisability  of  what 
is  called  sensational  preaching  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  I  am  for  it,  or  against  it,  according 
to  what  you  mean  by  it.  If  it  aims  at  a  low,  temporary 
success  by  mere  trickery,  I  don't  believe  in  it ;  but  if  you 


SERMON-MAKING, 


237 


mean  preaching  which  produces  a  sensation,  I  do.  The 
legitimate  use  of  real  truth  is  all  right,  no  matter  how 
much  people  get  stirred  up ;  the  more  the  better.  In 
this  matter  you  will  not  err  if  you  are  up  to  par  in 
manliness,  neither  above  it  nor  below. 


LOVE,   THE    CENTRAL   ELEMENT    OF   THE 
CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY. 

KNOW  of  no  single  passage  of  Scripture 
that  gives,  with  so  much  detail,  the  Apostle's 
idea  of  the  ends  and  instrumentalities  of  the 
Christian  minister,  as  that  contained  in  the 
fourth  chapter  of  Ephesians,  a  few  verses  of  which  I  will 
read  to  you,  because  there  is  one  sentence  there  that 
will  contain  the  thought  of  to-day.  "And  he  gave 
some,  apostles ;  and  some,  prophets  ;  and  some,  evan- 
gelists ;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers ;  for  the  perfect- 
ing of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the 
edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ :  till  we  all  come  in  the 
unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son 
of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ :  that  we  henceforth  be 
no  more  children,  tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about 
with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  sleight  of  men, 
and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  de- 
ceive ;  but  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  may  grow  up 
into  him  in  all  things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ : 
from  whom  the  whole  body  fitly  joined  together  and 


LOVE,  THE  CEXTKAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  239 

compacted  by  that  which  every  joint  supplieth,  accord- 
ing to  the  effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every 
part,  maketh  increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of 
itself  in  love." 

I  purpose,  this  afternoon,  to  speak  to  you  on  the 
love-principle  as  the  central  power  in  the  work  of  a 
Christian  minister.  "Speaking  the  truth  in  love"  is 
the  expression,  and  it  is  still  stronger  in  the  original 
than  in  our  version,  because  we  have  no  word  signify- 
ing "  to  truth."  We  say  "  to  speak  the  truth."  Lit- 
erally, it  is  truthing  it  in  loce.  Xo  one,  it  seems  to 
me,  can  have  read  attentively  the  teachings  of  the 
Apostle,  and  entered  into  the  spirit  in  which  he 
worked,  without  having  seen  under  all  his  feelings 
and  experiences  the  influence  of  this  immense  love- 
principle.  In  him  it  took  on  a  more  enthusiastic  form 
than  it  did  in  the  Saviour.  It  was,  as  one  might  say, 
more  a  novelty  with  him.  It  was  the  eternal  state  of 
the  Saviour,  widely  diffused  and  developed,  and  like  a 
native  atmosphere,  such  as  envelops  the  whole  earth. 
In  the  Apostle  it  seems  more  like  an  intense  or  concen- 
trated inspiration.  It  was  news  to  him,  indeed,  and 
good  news.  It  inspired  evidently  and  vividly  every 
part  of  his  life. 

WHAT   IS   LOVE? 

I  think  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  give  any  definition 
of  it.  We  may  point  to  some  men  and  say  they  come 
nearer  to  it,  as  exemplars,  than  others.  It  is  not  so 
much  a  faculty,  or  power,  as  it  is  a  certain  condition  of 
the  whole  spirit,  made  up  of  the  contribution  of  several 
different  elements  of  the  mind,  having  relations  to 


240          LECIUUE8  OX  PREACHING. 

things  superior  and  to  things  inferior.  It  is  the  reli- 
gious principle,  which,  when  you  have  it  as  the  ground 
and  root  of  your  ministry,  includes,  primarily,  love  to 
God.  And  by  the  term  "  God  "  we  understand  whatever 
is  conceived  of  as  superhuman  in  excellence  and  in 
wisdom.  God  is  infinite.  No  man  can  crystallize  God. 
If  he  does,  his  God  becomes  an  idol  not  bigger  than 
the  man.  God  is  infinite  and  formless.  When  he  is 
really  thought  of,  it  is  by  the  contribution  of  some  of 
the  highest  and  best  of  human  qualities,  out  of  which 
and  over  which  something  flames  up  before  the  imagi- 
nation that  is  higher  than  the  reach  of  human  expe- 
rience. The  germ  may  have  been  derived  from  ob- 
servation or  experience,  but  we  recompose  these  nobler 
attributes  of  the  soul,  clothe  them  with  form,  and  call 
that  God, — knowing  all  the  time  that  we  cannot 
measure  him,  but  that  this  process  of  thought  and 
feeling  reveals  and  inspires  in  us  some  sense  of  that 
quality  which  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  the  Divine 
attributes.  But  the  true  sense  of  God  does  not  stop 
there.  It  includes  the  feeling  of  love  towards  this 
Divine  being  which  is  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  most  glorious  choral  and  symphony 
of  which  lies  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  1st  Corin- 
thians. Such  a  love  embraces  all  that  is  human, —  all 
creatures  who  have  the  power  of  being  happy  or  miser- 
able, and  it  has  a  yearning  sympathy  and  desire  for 
their  good.  It  includes,  also,  a  nearness,  a  sweetness, 
and  a  desire  towards  men,  not  so  much  that  they  should 
love  us,  for  that  is  confined  more  nearly  to  the  re- 
ciprocating passions  of  men,  —  friendship,  for  instance, 
which  is  a  specialty  under  this  generic  head,  and  is  a 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  241 

part  of  it,  though  essentially  it  involves  an  element  of 
self.  But  the  charity,  or  love,  of  the  Xew  Testament  is 
the  going  out  of  thought,  of  feeling,  and  of  sympathy 
towards  others,  and  towards  whatever  can  receive  ben- 
efit from  us.  It  is  the  state  of  the  Creator,  and  I 
suppose  that  it  is  the  state  of  those  most  like  him, 
who  dwell  close  to  him.  It  is  the  wish  that  whatever 
we  are  thinking  of,  or  saying,  or  doing,  may  make 
some  one  better  and  happier.  It  is  genial.  It  ought 
to  be  full  of  cheer,  courage,  hope,  and  it  is  full  of  bounty 
and  blessings.  It  means  happiness,  and  as  happiness  is 
greater  in  proportion  as  it  rises  from  the  lower  range 
of  susceptibilities  to  the  higher  moral  qualities,  those 
who  desire  to  confer  happiness  intelligently  will  do  so 
by  making  men  capable  of  being  happy,  that  is,  by 
enriching  and  developing  their  higher  nature. 

LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  POWER  OF  THE   MINISTRY. 

You  will  find  all  the  way  through  the  letters  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  how  much,  he  relied  upon  the  inspira- 
tion of  love,  how  much  it  was  the  working  power 
of  his  ministry.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  dis- 
tinctive quality  that  ought  to  belong  to  every  Chris- 
tian minister.  It  is  the  underlying  force  by  which  all 
his  special  faculties  should  be  inspired.  Where  this 
exists  in  great  power,  it  will  give  a  peculiar  color  and 
quality  to  every  attribute  of  the  mind.  Even  the  most 
formal  acts  of  reasoning  will  have  a  certain  glow  im- 
parted to  them.  The  sharpest  discriminations  made 
by  conscience,  the  requisitions  of  the  most  fastidious 
taste,  the  impulses  of  fear,  the  stress  of  indignation  and 
of  anger  itself,  will  all  receive  a  tone  and  quality  from 
11  p 


242          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

love  which  will  make  them  doubly  powerful  and  doubly 
beneficent.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  other  temper 
than  that  of  love  will  carry  a  minister  through  his 
whole  work  with  so  little  wear  and  tear,  with  so  much 
inward  satisfaction.  Indeed,  it  is  the  element  by  which 
he  interprets  at  once  God  and  man.  It  is  only  when 
we  put  ourselves,  according  to  the  measure  of  our 
power,  into  the  same  relations  towards  man  that  God 
sustains,  that  we  are  susceptible  of  intuitions  of  Divine 
mercy  and  pity,  or  can  form  any  conception  of  how 
the  amazing  power  of  God  may  act  beneficently, 
through  the  atmosphere  of  Divine  love,  towards  things 
mean,  selfish,  and  hateful.  There  is  only  one  pass-key 
that  will  open  every  door,  and  that  is  the  golden  key 
of  love.  You  can  touch  every  side  of  the  human  heart 
and  its  every  want,  that  is,  if  you  can  touch  it  at  all ; 
and  if  you  have  the  power  to  bestow  anything,  love 
gives  facility  of  access,  the  power  of  drawing  near 
to  men,  the  power  of  enriching  thought,  of  weakening 
their  hungry  desires  and  appetites,  the  power  to  thaw 
out  the  winter  of  their  souls  and  to  prepare  the  soil  for 
the  seed  and  growth  of  the  better  life. 

A  minister  who  has  pure  intellection  only  to  offer  to 
his  people  is  like  one  who  would  in  winter  drag  a 
plow  over  the  frozen  ground.  He  marks  it,  but  he  does 
not  furrow  it.  He  who  has  to  make  the  seed  of  truth 
grow  in  living  men  into  living  forms  must  have  power 
to  bring  summer  to  men's  hearts,  —  light  and  heat; 
and  then  culture,  whether  it  be  by  the  plow  or  the 
harrow,  by  the  hoe  or  the  spade,  will  do  some  good.  It 
is  this  summer-powTer  of  love,  first,  middle,  and  last, 
that  every  teacher  and  Christian  preacher  ought  to  seek. 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  243 

It  is  this  that  you  ought  to  seek  in  the  closet,  in  medi- 
tation, and  in  intercourse  one  with  another.  You  must 
have  a  heart  so  alive  and  full  of  genial,  sympathizing 
love  that  you  feel  yourself  related  to  everything  on 
the  globe  that  lives  and  has  the  power  of  enjoyment. 
How  this  noble  conception  has  been  felt  by  the  old 
ministers  of  New  England !  No  man  can  read  the 
writings  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  of  Hopkins,  and  others 
of  that  school,  without  seeing  how  they  were  filled  with 
this  sense  of  doing  for  others,  and  the  desire  to  confer 
blessings  upon  universal  sentient  being.  Their  system 
was,  in  many  respects,  very  imperfect,  but,  after  all,  the 
ideal  was  in  their  mind.  They  had  a  true  conception  of 
the  all-pervading  power  of  love  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
which  ought  to  be  the  very  center,  out  of  which  the 
whole  ministry  is  to  grow. 

LOVE,  NOT  MERE   GOOD-NATURE. 

A  great  many  persons,  when  you  say  such  things  as 
these,  feel,  at  once,  "  That  is  my  doctrine.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  these  always  dry,  metaphysical  men,  arguing 
and  arguing  and  arguing."  Another  man  says,  "  That 
is  my  idea  about  it.  I  do  not  like  these  men  who  are 
always  combative.  I  like  a  mild,  meek,  and  lowly 
man." 

But  I  do  not  mean  any  such  thing  as  that.  I  do  not 
mean  these  lazy,  sunshiny,  good-natured  men,  who  have 
no  particular  opinions,  and  who  would  about  as  soon 
have  things  go  one  way  as  another;  who  are  without 
sharp  and  discriminating  thought,  have  no  preferences, 
no  indignation,  no  conscience,  no  fire.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  any  such  men.  I  like  to  see  a  man  who  has 


244          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

got  snap  in  every  part  of  him,  who  knows  how  to  think 
and  to  speak,  and  to  put  on  the  screw,  if  that  is  his  par- 
ticular mode  of  working. 

This  sweet  and  beneficent  heart-quality  that  I  am 
speaking  of  is  the  atmesphere  in  which  every  other  fac- 
ulty works,  and  which  is  generic  to  them  all.  It  is 
Christian  sympathy,  benevolence,  and  love.  Do  you  not 
suppose  that  love  has  anger  ?  There  is  no  such  anger  as 
that  which  a  mother's  love  furnishes.  Do  you  suppose 
that  when  she  sees  the  child  that  is  both  herself  and  him 
whom  she  loves  better  than  herself,  the  child  in  whom 
her  hope  is  bound  up,  the  child  that  is  God's  glass 
through  which  she  sees  immortality,  the  child  that 
is  more  to  her  than  her  own  life,  doing  a  detestable 
meanness,  that  she  is  not  angry  and  indignant,  and  that 
the  child  does  not  feel  the  smart  of  physical  advice  ? 
Do  you  not  suppose  that  the  child  knows  what  anger 
is  ?  I  tell  you  there  is  no  such  indignation  possible  as 
the  indignation  that  means  rescue,  help,  hope,  and  bet- 
terment. You  might  as  well  say  that  a  summer  shower 
has  no  thunder  as  to  say  that  love  has  no  anger.  It 
is  full  of  it,  or  may  be.  Has  love  no  specialty  or 
discrimination  in  removing  error,  nor  any  continuing, 
intense  regard  for  specific  and  exact  truth  ?  God  has  it, 
and  we  are  like  him.  We  are  his  children,  and  know 
it  by  that.  Love  is  simply  that  which  overhangs  all 
these  powers,  which  gives  them  quality  and  direction, 
and  gives  to  us  a  larger  power  through  these  lower 
instruments. 

And  so  a  man  who  is  piirely  intellectual,  without  any 
special  sympathy  or  love,  cannot  deal  rightly  in  moral 
truth.  He  may  in  physical  truth,  because  that  is  not 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  245 

at  all  a  question  of  influence ;  but  all  moral  truth  — 
and  with  that  you  have  mainly  to  deal  —  is  truth  that 
springs  out  of  experience.  Unless  you  have  love,  you 
cannot  go  right  by  pure  intellect ;  while  the  intellect 
working  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  can  rarely  go  wrong 
in  moral  things. 

You  cannot  long  go  right  where  it  is  the  sense  of 
beauty  alone  that  you  are  appealing  to.  He  who 
preaches  mainly  to  taste  and  the  sense  of  the  beauti- 
ful, he  who  sees  God  especially  in  forms  and  colors 
and  sounds,  and  all  the  sweet  elements  of  grace  in  the 
•world,  has  one  portion  of  the  truth,  but  he  is  apt  to 
run  out,  through  feebleness,  into  sentimentality.  He 
lacks  that  strength,  that  power,  and  that  continuity 
which  come  from  the  real  Divine  love-temperament. 

LOVE   OF  THE  WORK. 

Now  it  is  to  the  use  of  this  principle  in  a  few  direc- 
tions that  I  shall  ask  your  attention  this  afternoon. 
First,  for  your  own  souls'  sake,  you  cannot  afford  to  be 
ministers  if  your  work  is  not  love- work,  if  it  is  a  bur- 
den to  you,  if  your  parishes  are  to  you  what  a  bound 
boy  is  to  the  farmer,  —  a  nuisance,  rather  than  a  help, 
and,  on  general  principles  of  humanity,  to  be  got  along 
with  in  the  best  way  possible.  If  you  are  carrying 
your  work  in  that  way,  you  have  no  business  where 
you  are.  He  who  takes  the  wants  of  a  community  into 
his  keeping,  he  who  undertakes  to  teach  the  young,  to 
comfort  the  old  in  the  midst  of  their  earthly  sorrows, 
and  to  solve  all  those  endless  problems  that  are  coming 
up  day  by  day,  must  love  his  work  and  his  people, 
and  be  conscious  that  his  heart  goes  out  to  them  and 


246          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

yearns  for  them,  as,  in  the  last  days  of  winter,  we  yearn 
to  hear  the  singing  of  the  birds,  and  watch  for  the  trees 
to  put  forth  their  odorous  buds,  and  spread  their  fra- 
grance through  the  air.  How  we  do  long  for  spring 
and  summer,  and  for  their  sweetness  !  The  preacher 
ought  to  stand  to  his  work  all  the  time  longing  for  the 
development  of  men  as  we  do  for  flowers,  and  as  the 
vintner  does  for  the  time  of  the  grape.  When  you 
have  this  love,  how  patient  it  will  make  you,  and  how 
easy  it  will  make  the  hard  tasks  of  your  ministry ! 
How  full  of  suggestion  it  will  be  !  How  it  will  bring 
sermons  out  of  people,  and  how  it  will  multiply  the 
occasions  of  bounty !  What  a  discernment  of  clear  inter- 
pretation there  is  through  the  medium  of  sympathy  and 
benevolence,  and  how  it  carries  its  own  reward  with  it ! 
Some  men  work  from  a  sense  of  duty,  —  and  better 
that  than  nothing ;  others  work  from  various  motives ; 
but  the  best  motive  of  all  is  love  of  the  work.  Having 
that,  you  cannot  help  working.  Why  do  birds  sing? 
Because  the  song  is  in  them,  and  if  they  did  not  let 
it  forth  they  would  split ;  it  must  come  out.  It  is  the 
spontaneity  and  the  urgency  of  this  feeling  in  them 
that  impels  their  utterance.  Why  should  men  work,  or 
visit,  or  preach  ?  Because  their  hearts  want  some  out- 
let, some  vent,  to  give  expression  to  the  feeling  of 
earnest  sympathy  that  is  in  them.  Where  a  man  has 
this  strong  and  large  benevolence,  he  will  always  be 
busy,  and  pleasantly  busy. 

THE  HEALTHFULNESS  OF  BENEVOLENCE. 

And  more  than  that,  let  me  tell  you,  there  is  nothing 
that  enables  a  man  to  last  so  long  as  the  qualities  which 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  247 

naturally  are  trained  into  tins  spirit  of  true,  sympathetic 
beneficence.  All  the  acerb  feelings  grind  the  enamel 
off.  All  men  who  work  under  a  sense  of  responsibility, 
men  who  hear  the  crack  of  Conscience's  whip  all  the 
time,  and  all  those  who  are  inspired  by  the  Protean 
forms  of  fear,  easily  wear  out.  The  kindly  feelings  of 
man's  nature  have  nourishment  in  them.  They  are 
not  stimulants  alone.  They  carry  nutriment,  and  a 
man  who  is  working  good-naturedly,  with  the  sweet- 
ness of  hope  and  with  the  facility  of  courage  all  the 
time,  can  work  weeks  and  months  without  breaking 
down  ;  nay,  he  grows  fat  on  work.  I  hold  that  there  is 
nothing  so  wholesome  or  so  medicinal  as  brain-work, 
rightly  directed.  "While  a  man  may  exhaust  his  ner- 
vous system  by  excessive  brain-work,  a  moderate  and 
reasonable  practice  of  it  is  beneficial  You  all  know 
that  ministers  are  the  longest  livers.  I  do  not  men- 
tion that  to  prove  that  they  are  the  greatest  brain- 
workers  ;  but  a  man  who  works  under  a  high  form  of 
positive  benevolence,  which  brings  cheer  and  hope,  can 
•work  longer  and  with  less  fatigue,  and  he  can  con- 
tinue under  intense  excitement  longer  and  with  less 
wear  and  tear,  than  under  any  other  stimulus. 

I  have  often  been  asked  by  what  secret  I  retain 
health  and  vigor  under  labors  multiform  and  continuous. 
I  owe  much  to  a  good  constitution  inherited  from  my 
parents,  not  spoiled  by  youthful  excesses  or  weak- 
ened by  over-study ;  much  also  to  an  early  acquired 
knowledge  of  how  to  take  care  of  myself,  to  secure 
invariably  a  full  measure  of  sleep,  to  regard  food  as  an 
engineer  does  fuel  (to  be  employed  economically,  and 
entirely  with  reference  to  the  work  to  be  done  by  the 


248          LECTUKES  ON  PREACHING. 

machine) ;  much  to  the  habit  of  economizing  social 
forces,  and  not  wasting  in  needless  conversation  and 
pleasurable  hilarities  the  spirit  that  would  carry  me 
through  many  days  of  necessary  work  ;  but,  above  all, 
to  the  possession  of  a  hopeful  disposition  and  natural 
courage,  to  sympathy  with  men,  and  to  an  unfailing 
trust  in  God;  so  that  I  have  always  worked  for  the 
love  of  working.  I  have  cast  out  the  grinding  sense 
of  responsibility  as  uncongenial  to  the  faith  and  trust 
which  belong  to  a  Christian  life.  I  have  studiously 
refused  to  entertain  anxieties.  I  have  put  in  all  the 
forces  which  I  possessed,  as  a  farmer  puts  in  his  labor 
and  his  seed  ;  and  I  have  left  the  germination,  and  the 
weather,  and  the  future  harvest,  to  the  providence  of 
God.  In  general,  I  have  never  performed  my  work  but 
once  ;  whereas  many  others  perform  theirs  three  times, 
^-  first,  by  anticipation  ;  then,  in  realization ;  and  after- 
wards, by  rumination.  In  general,  however,  it  may  be 
said  that  a  hopeful,  trusting,  and  loving  disposition 
carries  health,  and  restores  men  from  fatigue,  more 
rapidly  than  any  other.  The  acerb  feelings  are  cor- 
rosive. The  saccharine  emotions  are  nourishing  and 
enduring. 

LOVE,  A  POWER-GIVING  ELEMENT. 

But  there  are  other  things.  No  one  can  deal  with 
the  hearts  of  men  as  he  ought,  unless  he  has  the  sym- 
pathy which  is  given  by  love.  I  have  always  been 
struck  with  the  Apostle's  notion  as  to  quality  and 
quantity  of  feeling.  If  he  charges  you  to  be  hopeful, 
it  is  to  be  very  hopeful.  It  is  not  enough  for  you  to 
be  right.  You  must  be  very  largely  right ;  each  par- 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  249 

ticular  good  must  be  carried  up  to  its  ideal  form. 
Thus,  we  are  not  only  to  be  fruitful,  but  we  must 
abound  in  fruitfulness,  as  a  vine,  bearing  so  much  that 
clusters  have  to  be  cut  away  to  make  room  for  those 
that  remain.  We  do  not  know  what  Christian  quali- 
ties are  until  we  see  them  in  their  larger  forms. 
Suppose  we  knew  nothing  about  apples  except  as  we 
had  seen  them  grown  in  Siberia,  what  could  we  say 
about  pound  pippins  ?  Suppose  you  only  see  those 
poor,  mean,  and  barren  qualities  that  often  are  called 
Christian  experiences,  what  would  you  know  about  the 
depths,  the  beauty,  the  freshness,  and  the  power  that 
are  in  a  true  man,  who  is  built  after  the  model  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  conscious  of  his  strength,  who  is  free, 
who  is  profuse,  generous,  and  abundant?  God  is  in 
him ;  and  men  see  God  more  nearly  than  they  can  by 
their  own  meditation,  when  they  see  a  man  like  that. 
You  may  have  benevolence  as  a  pale  stream  of  moon- 
beams shining  into  your  study  window,  and  you  may 
sit  and  write  your  thin  sermons  in  the  light  of  that 
pale,  speculative  benevolence,  but  it  will  not  do. 

When  our  Master  was  approaching  the  last  part  of 
his  life,  when  the  cloud  threatening  the  future  was 
already  over  him,  when  he  stood  near  to  the  grave,  he 
said  to  his  disciples,  in  that  moment  of  preternatural 
anguish, "  Peace  I  leave  with  you, —  my  peace  I  give  unto 
you."  It  always  filled  me  with  admiration  that  Christ 
not  only  had  peace  for  himself,  but  enough  to  share  with 
his  disciples, — "  My  peace  I  give  unto  you."  Brethren, 
every  quality  that  goes  to  make  manhood  you  must 
have  in  excess,  as  the  brooks  have  their  treasures,  mak- 
ing haste  to  empty  themselves,  to  give  room  for  that 
11* 


250          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

which  is  coming  on  behind.  You  must  have  enough 
benevolence,  not  only  for  yourselves,  but  for  your  con- 
gregation also,  to  pervade  and  to  fill  them.  This  is 
what  you  ought  to  live  for,  and  this  is  what  is  meant 
by  living  a  godly  life,  producing  not  ideas  alone,  not 
arguments  only,  but  living,  loving  manhood, —  doctrine 
in  living  forms.  It  is  what  men  ought  to  seek  for  in 
their  closet  and  in  their  daily  conversation. 

I  feel  provoked  when  I  see  how  young  Christians 
often  try  to  build  themselves  up  into  a  Christian  life 
by  social  meetings,  so  called.  They  get  into  an  un- 
comfortable room ;  they  sit  stiff  and  dumb.  Some 
one  opens  a  Bible,  and  reads  a  chapter ;  then  somebody 
turns  around,  kneels  down,  and  makes  a  prayer ;  then 
another  chapter,  and  then  they  sing.  They  all  have  an 
awful  responsibility,  and  all  wish  they  felt  something. 
They  get  up,  look  solemn,  and  go  out.  They  move  off 
regularly,  methodically,  and  mechanically  to  their  sev- 
eral businesses ;  and  that  is  trying  to  grow  in  grace  ! 
You  might  just  as  well  expect  to  make  a  shady  forest 
in  your  garden  with  the  beanpoles  you  had  cut  and  set 
out  in  the  spring,  as  to  make  a  Christian  man  by  such 
a  course  as  that.  It  lacks  juice,  and  its  juice  lacks 
sugar.  There  is  no  grace,  there  is  no  reality  to  it. 
There  is  nothing  in  it  that  God  loves,  and  certainly 
you  do  not  like  it.  When  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  comes  down  upon  men,  they  grow  up  into  such 
experiences  as  those  which  ring  so  grandly  through  the 
cathedral  of  the  Bible.  You  are  called  to  liberty,  to  a 
larger  life.  You  are  called  to  more  manliness,  to  love, 
to  fervor,  to  joy ! 

What  you  need,  to  make  your  ministry  successful  in 


LOYE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MDflSTEY.  251 

dealing  with  men,  is  that  wonderful  power  which  a  true, 
large,  and  fruitful  benevolence  gives.  Here  is  a  little 
penurious  whipster  of  a  man,  —  as  it  were,  made  up  of 
that  which  was  left,  a  mere  biscuit  after  the  loaf.  You 
hear  the  neighbors  say  he  is  "  the  smallest  specimen  of 
a  man  in  this  neighborhood."  But  if  you,  a  minister 
of  Christ's  gospel,  look  upon  him,  there  is  that  in  him 
which  ought  to  make  your  heart  yearn  and  swell 
towards  him.  Christ  died  for  him,  and  eternity  has 
registered  his  name.  Simple  as  he  is,  poor  as  he  is, 
thin  as  he  is,  unsatisfactory  as  he  is,  though  he  were 
but  a  sand-bank  among  rich  soils,  it  is  for  you  to  find 
a  way  of  culture  that  shall  bring  forth  some  beauty 
out  of  the  very  barrenness  of  his  nature.  Your  heart 
should  sympathize  with  him  in  such  a  way  that  you 
can  say,  "  I  will  add  to  him  what  he  lacks  ;  I  will  shine 
into  him  and  warm  him,  I  will  brood  over  him  and 
will  help  him.  I  will  do  it  myself."  Lay  down  your 
life  for  him.  Give  him  something  of  your  life. 

Then,  again,  there  is  a  suspicious  man,  who  is  always 
seeing  people's  faults.  He  rejoices  in  iniquity,  and  car- 
ries it  as  a  peddler  does  his  pack.  He  likes  to  sit  down 
in  the  corners  and  retail  it.  Nothing  is  so  spicy  to  him. 
He  smacks  his  lips  over  it.  He  comes  to  you  and  says, 
"  You  have  heard  about  the  old  deacon  up  there,"  and 
so  on.  He  goes  around  the  village.  He  is  a  turkey- 
buzzard  among  men,  picking  up  carrion  and  feeding  on 
it.  Everybody  despises  him  and  hates  him,  —  except 
the  man  who  loves.  He  feels  like  a  physician  going 
into  a  hospital  and  finding  a  patient  there  who  is  a 
mass  of  disease.  If  he  were  searching  for  a  painter's 
model,  he  would  not  look  at  such  a  man.  But,  going 


252          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

there  as  a  healer,  he  will  try  what  he  can  do  to 
relieve  the  sick  man.  You  can  manage  these  morally 
diseased  men  if  you  only  love  them.  It  is  your  busi- 
ness to  strike  such  warmth  into  a  bad  man  as  to  make 
him  believe  that  you  are  working  for  his  good.  You 
must  make  him  "  cotton  "  to  you  and  be  glad  to  see  you, 
so  that  he  will  lay  aside  his  deviltry  when  you  go  near 
him.  Probably  hi  will  not  believe  in  you  at  first,  and 
may  suspect  there  is  some  deceit  in  it  all.  He  will 
watch  you,  and  will  "  summer  and  winter  "  you.  But, 
follow  him  up,  and  by  and  by  there  will  be  a  chance 
when  there  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  your  motives. 

I  had  a  man  in  my  parish  in  Indiana,  who  was  a  very 
ugly  fellow.  He  had  a  wife  and  daughter  who  were 
awakened  during  the  revival  which  was  then  work- 
ing, and,  while  visiting  others  who  needed  instruction, 
I  went  to  see  and. talk  with  them.  He  heard  that  I  had 
been  in  his  house,  and  shortly  afterwards  I  passed  down 
the  street  in  which  he  lived.  He  was  sitting  on  the 
fence ;  and  of  all  the  filth  that  was  ever  emptied  on 
a  young  minister's  head,  I  received  my  share.  He 
threw  it  out,  right  and  left,  up  and  down,  and  said  every- 
thing that  was  calculated  to  harrow  my  pride.  I  was 
very  wholesomely  indignant  for  a  young  man.  I  said 
to  myself,  "  Look  here,  I  will  be  revenged  on  you  yet." 
He  told  me  I  should  never  darken  his  door  again,  to 
which  I  responded  that  I  never  would  until  I  had  his 
invitation  to  do  so.  Things  went  on  for  some  time..  I 
met  him  on  the  street,  bowed  to  him,  spoke  well  of  him, 
and  never  repeated  his  treatment  of  me  to  any  one. 
We  constantly  crossed  each  other's  paths,  and  often  vis- 
ited the  same  people.  I  always  spoke  kindly  of  him. 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  253 

Very  soon  he  ran  for  the  office  of  sheriff,  and  then  I 
went  out  into  the  field  and  worked  for  him.  I  can- 
vassed for  votes ;  I  used  my  personal  influence.  It  was 
a  pretty  close  election,  but  he  was  elected.  When  he 
knew  I  was  working  for  him,  I  never  saw  a  man  so 
utterly  perplexed  as  he  was.  He  did  not  know  what  to 
make  of  it.  He  came  to  me  one  day,  awkward  and 
stumbling,  and  undertook  to  "  make  up,"  as  the  saying 
is.  He  said  he  would  be  very  glad  to  have  me  call  and 
see  him.  I  congratulated  him  on  his  election,  and  of 
course  accepted  his  overtures ;  and  from  that  time  forth 
I  never  had  a  faster  friend  in  the  world  than  he  was. 
Now  I  might  have  thrown  stones  at  him  from  the  top- 
most cliffs  of  Mount  Sinai,  and  hit  him  every  time,  but 
that  would  not  have  done  him  any  good.  Kindness 
killed  him.  I  won  his  confidence. 

THE   SUSTAINING  POWER  OF  LOVE. 

Now,  your  congregation  will  be  full  of  sluggish  peo- 
ple. Somebody  must  bear  with  those  dull  and  stupid 
ones.  You  will  find,  what  is  a  great  deal  worse,  people 
who  know  everything,  and  yet  know  nothing,  You 
cannot  teach  them  anything.  They  are  concerted  snips 
of  men,  who  are  rushing  up  to  you,  and  taking  on 
airs  in  your  presence,  and  you  feel  like  smacking 
them,  as  you  would  a  black  fly  or  a  mosquito.  But 
somebody  has  to  bear  with  them.  If  Christ  died  for 
the  world,  he  died  for  a  great  many  ordinary  folks ; 
and  if  we  are  Christ's  we  must  do  the  same  thing.  I 
defy  you  tov  do  this  on  a  plan,  or  a  purpose,  or  *'on 
speculation,"  if  I  might  say  so.  You  have  to  do  it 
because  there  is  that  in  your  heart  which  makes  you 


254          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

brother  to  such  men.  You  have  to  say,  "  He  is  worth 
bearing  with.  I  would  better  suffer  in  his  place  than  let 
him  suffer.  He  must  be  enlarged.  He  must  be  aug- 
mented, and  made  more  a  man  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Then,  again,  you  have  obstinate  men  whom  you  can- 
not start,  men  who  are  unreasonable.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  long  run  that  can  withstand  a  wise  tenderness, 
a  gentle  benevolence,  and  a  sympathy  that  melts  the 
heart  by  a  genial  fervor,  and  which  is  continued  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  in  sickness  and  in  health, 
year  in  and  year  out.  Nothing  can  withstand  that. 
How  is  the  soil  disintegrated  ?  First,  the  ground  is 
broken  down  by  the  grinding  of  the  frost,  then  come 
the  warmth  of  spring,  the  mellow  rains,  and  then  the 
after-sunshine.  In  such  ways  must  a  minister  work, 
—  first  by  attrition,  and  then  by  the  geniality  of  his 
own  soul.  You  can  make  soil  out  of  almost  any- 
thing, if  you  will  only  give  your  time  to  it.* 

LOVE,   THE   KEY-NOTE   OF  PULPIT-WORK. 

There  are,  also,  some  specialties  in  this  true  Christian 
love  and  sympathy  that  bear  upon  the  pulpit.  In  the 
first  place,  the  whole  cast  of  your  thought  and  the  sub- 
jects with  which  you  deal  are  to  bear  the  impress  of 

"  But  we  were  gentle  among  yon,  even  as  a  nurse  cherisheth  her 
children  :  so  being  affectionately  desirous  of  you,  we  were  willing  to 
have  imparted  unto  you,  not  the  gospel  of  God  only,  but  also  our  own 
souls,  because  ye  were  dear  unto  us.  For  ye  remember,  brethren,  our 
labor  and  travail :  for  laboring  night  and  day,  because  we  would  not 
be  chargeable  unto  any  of  you,  we  preached  unto  you  the  gospel  of 
God.  Ye  are  witnesses,  and  God  also,  how  holily  and  justly  and 
unblamably  we  behaved  ourselves  among  you  that  believe.  As  ye 
know  how  we  exhorted  and  comforted  and  charged  every  oue  of  you, 
as  a  father  doth  his  children."  —  1  THESS.  ii.  7-11. 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  255 

this  good  news,  —  that  God  is  Love,  and  that  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  son  to  die  for  it ;  and 
that  Christ  so  loves  the  world,  that,  having  died  for  it, 
he  now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  a  risen  Saviour, 
to  live  for  it 

If  you  preach  justice  alone,  you  will  murder  the  gos- 
pel. If  you  preach  conscientiously,  as  it  is  called ;  if 
you  sympathize  with  law  and  with  righteousness  as  in- 
terpreted by  the  narrow  rule  of  a  straight  line ;  if  you 
preach,  especially,  with  a  sense  of  vindictive  retribution, 
—  I  do  not  care  who  the  criminals  are,  —  you  will  fail  of 
your  whole  duty.  There  must  be  justice,  and  punitive 
justice,  of  course ;  but,  after  all,  "  Vengeance  is  mine," 
saith  the  Lord.  It  is  a  quality  so  dangerous  to  handle 
that  only  Infinite  Love  is  safe  in  administering  it.  Xo 
mortal  man  should  dare  to  touch  it,  for  it  is  a  terrible 
instrument.  You  are  to  administer  all  the  great  truths, 
the  most  rugged  truths,  in  the  spirit  of  the  truest  sym- 
pathy, benevolence,  and  love. 

LOVE  MAKES   A  FREE   PREACHER. 

When  you  kindle  to  a  full  sympathy  with  God 
and  man,  you  can  preach  anything  you  please.  You 
can  say  anything  you  please ;  if  it  goes  with  a  reason- 
able degree  of  wisdom  and  a  great  degree  of  sympa- 
thetic love,  it  will  be  warmly  received.  Recollect  the 
Apostle's  manner.  When  he  wanted  to  rebuke  the 
Ephesian  Church,  he  bethought  him  of  all  the  good 
things  he  could,  for  encouragement.  "  Nevertheless, 
I  have  somewhat  against  thee,"  adds  he  ;  and  then 
he  brought  in  his  rebuke,  having  prepared  the  way 
for  it. 


256          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

Some  ministers  seem  to  feel  that  men  are  totally 
depraved,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  preacher 
to  secure  the  evidence  of  it  by  stirring  men  up  to  bit- 
terness and  resistance.  Your  business  is  to  tone  that 
down,  and  to  prepare  men's  hearts  by  skillful  address 
that  shall  put  to  sleep  these  repellent  forces  in  them, 
so  that  they  will  hear  your  message  and  accept  your 
influence  upon  the  nobler  side  of  their  minds.  "When 
you  are  like  a  wise  teacher  or  an  affectionate  parent, 
and  prepare  your  congregation  for  what  you  wish,  you 
can  say  almost  anything  to  them. 

Young  gentlemen,  the  great  art  of  managing  a  con- 
gregation lies  in  this,  —  I  am  supposing  now  that  a  man 
has  a  good  substance  of  thought  and  common  sense, 
and  I  am  speaking  of  the  qualifications  that  reside  in 
the  heart  alone,  —  be  good-natured  yourself,  and  keep 
them  good-natured,  and  then  they  will  not  need  any 
managing.  It  is  the  most  difficult  thing  in  the  world  to 
control  a  great  audience,  when  they  are  irritable  and 
fault-finding  and  peevish ;  and  they  will  be  apt  to  be 
so,  if  the  minister's  own  gifts  lie  in  that  direction,  and 
his  service  is  irritating  and  arrogant.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  ministration  of  the  pulpit  is  a  balm  to 
them,  not  by  keeping  down  their  moral  sensibilities,  but 
by  keeping  the  sweeter  and  nobler  part  of  their  nature 
uppermost,  you  can  reprove  and  rebuke,  with  all  long- 
suffering,  and  they  will  accept  it  at  your  hands. 

It  is  out  of  this  spirit,  too,  that  you  can  deal  with 
topics  that  otherwise  would  not  be  allowed.  Ministers 
often  think  they  cannot  preach  what  they  feel  they 
ought  to  preach.  There  is  a  reformation  going  on,  and 
it  will  affect  vested  interests,  and  there  are  men  in  the 


LOVE,  THE  CESTKAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  257 

congregation,  involved  in  these  matters,  on  whom  one's 
influence  very  largely  depends,  and  it  would  be  danger- 
ous to  irritate  them.  One  man  is  a  factory-owner,  and 
the  whole  church  turns  on  that  pivot ;  and  yet  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  preach  on  the  duties  of  employers 
to  laboring  men,  and  their  sympathies  with  working- 
men.  Capital  is  largely  represented,  and  it  is  suspicious 
and  watchful.  Now,  you  cannot  afford  to  let  this  topic 
alone ;  and  you  have  sold  yourself  to  any  man  fear 
of  whom  makes  you  silent.  Yet  you  can  discuss  any 
topic  if  you  only  love  men  enough ;  your  heart  will 
tell  you  how  to  approach  it.  In  a  neighborhood  you 
can  preach  stringent  temperance,  though  there  are 
many  in  your  church  who  are  interested  in  the  preva- 
lence of  drinking-usages.  Slavery  can  be  preached 
against,  and  so  it  could  in  the  olden  times.  Of  course 
there  are  some  who  will  take  offence,  but,  in  the  main, 
you  will  hold  your  own  and  save  others.  It  is  to  be 
done  by  being  perfectly  sweet-tempered  and  perfectly 
fearless.  A  congregation  knows  when  a  minister  is 
afraid  of  them  just  as  well  as  a  horse  knows  that  his 
driver  is  afraid  of  him. 

If  you  want  to  stay  in  a  place,  be  willing  to  leave  it. 
He  that  would  save  his  life  must  be  willing  to  lose 
it,  and  he  that  will  lose  his  life  shall  save  it.  If  you 
are  willing  to  go  out  of  any  parish  just  as  soon  as  they 
wrant  you  to  go,  and  are  perfectly  willing  to  lay  down 
your  work  to-morrow  if  they  say  so,  they  will  know  it. 
If  you  want  to  stay  very  much,  they  will  know  that 
too,  and  will  take  advantage  of  it.  Stand  fearless, 
speaking  the  truth  in  love,  —  and  in  a  good  deal  of  love, 
—  in  love  multiplied  just  in  proportion  as  the  theme 

Q 


258          LECTURES  ON  PREACHING. 

is  critical  and  dangerous.  Be  willing  to  take  the  re- 
sponsibility of  saying  it,  when  they  attack  you  out  of 
the  pulpit,  bearing  in  mind  that  your  business  is  to 
take  care  not  only  of  yourself,  but  of  all  men.  If  one 
of  your  parishioners  behaves  badly,  you  must  tax  your- 
self with  his  bad  behavior,  and  say  it  is  partly  your 
fault,  and  not  altogether  his.  If  you  take  the  stand 
indicated  by  such  instances  as  I  have  alluded  to,  there 
is  no  reason  why  your  pastorate  should  not  be  long, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  you  may  not  preach  upon 
any  subject  you  choose. 

I  recollect  one  thing,  which  I  may  have  told  you 
before^  but  if  I  have,  you  will  have  a  chance,  as  I  have 
heard  Gough  say,  to  see  whether  I  am  capable  of  tell- 
ing the  same  thing  twice  alike.  It  is  in  reference  to 
what  Calvin  Fletcher,  a  wise  old  lawyer  in  Indianap- 
olis, said  to  me  on  one  occasion,  and  which  has  been  a 
help  to  me  all  my  life  since.  He  said,  "  If  I  do  business 
with  any  man  and  he  gets  angry  at  me,  or  does  not  act 
right,  it  is  my  fault.  My  business  is  to  see  that  every- 
body with  whom  I  do  business  shall  do  right ;  I  charge 
myself  with  that  responsibility."  Now  you  must 
charge  yourselves,  in  the  same  way,  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  your  parish.  If,  after  the  lapse  of  some  con- 
siderable time,  people  get  angry  and  act  wrongly,  it  is 
in  part  your  fault,  and  not  theirs  alone.  If  people  want 
to  hear  the  truth  with  freshness  and  new  life,  do  not  go 
clucking  around  the  country,  and  say,  "  I  was  ousted 
from  my  nest,  where  I  was  brooding,  because  the  peo- 
ple have  itching  ears  and  want  novelties."  If  people 
are  discontented  with  you,  they  have  a  right  to  be  so. 

In  closing,  then,  I  urge  you  to  see  that  you  are  com- 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  -MINISTRY.    2i>9 

petent  for  all  things,  by  study,  by  the  weight  of  your 
thought,  and  by  the  skill  of  your  administration  of  the 
truth  to  men  ;  but,  above  all,  and  beyond  all,  have  in 
you  the  propelling  power  of  that  genial,  yearning  love 
which  "  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things."  For  "  whether  there  be  prophecies "  — 
doctrines,  teachings  —  "  they  shall  fail ;  whether  there 
be  knowledge "  —  such  partial  and  incomplete  systems 
of  thought  as  men  work  out  —  "  it  shall  vanish  away." 
There  is  but  one  thing  that  stands.  "  LOVE  NEVER 

FAILETH." 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS. 

Q.  "Would  you  have  us  preach  on  the  subject  of  the  heart 
being  "  desperately  wicked  "  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  O  yes.  There  are  some  texts  in 
the  Bible  that  I  think  it  would  be  difficult  to  preach 
from,  but  that  is  not  one  of  them.  On  the  contrary, 
only  last  Sunday  morning  I  preached  on  a  branch  of 
that  theme,  namely,  the  "  deceitfulness  of  riches."  I 
showed  what  deceit  men  practiced  on  themselves  in 
proposing  to  themselves  to  get  rich,  in  trying  to  get 
rich,  and  then  in  taking  care  of  the  riches  when  acquired. 
I  did  not  notice  that  any  of  my  rich  men  took  it  to 
themselves,  either. 

Q.  Would  you  preach  "  He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned  "  ? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Would  I  ? 

STUDENT.  —  Yes,  sir. 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  Yes,  sir,  assuredly.  I  always  preach 
with  a  shadow.  There  is  always  an  alternative.  But 
I  do  not  need,  you  know,  to  have  a  whip  right  up  over 


260          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

the  kitchen  fireplace,  where  the  boy  can  see  it  all  the 
time.  If  you  have  given  him  one  good  whipping,  he 
will  remember  it,  and  then,  when  you  say  "  John ! " 
that  is  enough.  There  are  a  dozen  whippings  in  that. 

These  questions  that  you  are  propounding  all  come 
on  the  supposition  that  to  preach  in  a  spirit  of  love 
means  that  there  is  to  be  no  punishment.  It  does  not 
mean  any  such  thing.  The  spirit  of  love  carries  every- 
thing with  it.  It  carries  punishment  with  it,  but  in  a 
qualified  form,  even  as  love  carries  it;  though  not  as 
fear  does,  nor  as  conscience  does,  nor  as  pure  intellect 
does. 

Q.  Where  is  the  spring  from  which  a  man  is  to  obtain  the  love 
and  sympathy  you  speak  of? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  If  a  man  knows  what  he  wants  and 
what  he  is  aiming  at  in  his  every-day  life,  he  must  get 
it  just  as  he  would  seek  any  other  educational  develop- 
ment. If  you  desire  a  musical  education,  what  do  you 
do  ?  You  practice  for  that.  If  you  wish  to  attain 
knowledge  of  Art,  what  do  you  do  ?  You  put  your- 
self under  a  master,  and  work  for  form  and  color.  If 
you  want  devotion  in  the  sense  of  rapt  meditation, 
then  you  seek  that.  If  you  want  it  in  the  sense  of 
exhilaration  and  of  bounding  joyousness,  you  will  seek 
that.  But  if  you  want  religion  in  a  sense  of  genial 
sympathy  with  men,  you  will  seek  it  by  being  witli 
men.  And  when  you  can  bring  yourself  to  lay  aside 
things  that  you  very  much  wish  to  do,  things  that  are 
naturally  strong  in  you,  for  the  sake  of  doing  some- 
thing that  you  do  not  want  to  do,  or  being  some- 
thing that  you  do  not  want  to  be,  on  account  of  other 
persons,  who  are  neither  very  agreeable  nor  very  re- 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.    261 

warding,  and  who,  perhaps,  will  never  know  of  your 
sacrifice,  then  you  will  have  shown  yourself  fit  for  your 
work,  and  can  say,  "  I  lay  down  a  part  of  my  life  for 
that  man."  That  is  the  way  we  must  minister  to  our 
congregations.  Christ  says,  "  I  am  the  way."  Make 
a  road  for  men's  feet  upon  yourself.  Pave  it  with 
your  most  precious  things.  Do  it  a  few  times, 
and  I  do  not  think  you  will  have  to  ask  me  any 
other  questions  as  to  the  way  to  cultivate  that  spirit. 
Practice  loving  men  if  you  want  to  have  the  power 
of  love. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  a  man  who  is  by  nature  very  cold  and 
unsympathetic  should  preach,  or  go  into  the  ministry? 

MR.  BEECHER.  —  No ;  you  might  as  well  take  an 
icicle  to  warm  an  invalid's  bed  with. 

Q.  Was  not  Jonathan  Edwards,  when  preaching  the  justice  of 
G-od,  moved  by  love  ? 

Great  as  Edwards  truly  was,  and  far  in  advance  of 
his  age  in  many  respects,  he  yet  was  unconsciously  un- 
der the  grossly  materializing  theological  habits  of  the 
medieval  schools.  The  monarchial  figures  of  govern- 
ment in  the  Bible,  and  the  figures  of  material  punish- 
ment, are  full  terrible  enough.  But  to  employ  the 
imagination,  as  Edwards  did,  in  inventing  new  horrors 
for  hell,  above  all,  in  attempting  to  picture  the  Divine 
Heart  as  so  in  love  with  justice  that  it  rejoices  in  the 
merited  sufferings  of  the  wicked,  was  a  sad  perversion 
of  the  functions  of  imagination.  In  some  respects 
Edwards's  terrific  sermon, "  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an 
Angry  God,"  may  be  ranked  with  Dante's  Inferno  or 
Michael  Angelo's  painting  of  the  "  General  Judgment." 


262          LECTURES  OX  PREACHING. 

But  who  can  look  upon  the  detestable  representations 
of  the  painter,  or  the  hideous  scenes  of  the  Florentine 
poet,  without  a  shudder  of  wonder  that  they  should  have 
ever  corne  from  such  tender  and  noble  hearts  ?  They 
were  dreams  of  dark  days.  The  doom  of  wickedness 
is  dreadful  enough,  without  the  hideous  materialism 
and  the  horrible  buffoonery  of  justice  which  prevailed 
in  a  former  day. 

Q.  Is  there  not  something  analogous  to  Divine  judgment  in 
the  punishment  of  criminals  by  capital  and  other  punishment? 

Punishments  follow  the  violations  of  natural  law. 
But  Nature  is  blind.  It  makes  no  discriminations.  It 
takes  no  account  of  motives.  It  has  no  palliations  and 
no  pity. 

When  a  father  punishes,  he  takes  account  of  the  age, 
inexperience,  temptations,  and  motives  of  the  child,  and 
grades  his  penalties,  or  wholly  pardons,  as  will  best 
effect  his  end,  the  child's  good.  Governments  under- 
take to  do  the  same.  But  magistrates  are  hampered. 
Their  knowledge  is  Imperfect.  The  law  fixes  arbitrary 
processes  of  procedure.  Punishments  are  often  too 
lenient  or  too  severe.  They  are  determined  full  as 
much  by  the  weakness  of  government  as  by  the  desert 
of  the  victim.  Governments  are  but  clumsy  machines, 
and  public  justice  is  but  a  poor  imitation  of  Divine 
justice.  We  should  be  cautious  in  employing  the 
analogies  derived  from  material  laws,  or  from  human 
civil  governments,  in  interpreting  the  method  of  One 
who  knows  perfectly  all  things,  who  is  unlimited  in 
power,  and  who  is  not  impelled  by  sheer  weakness  to 
such  expedients  as  are  resorted  to  by  human  tribunals. 


LOVE,  THE  CENTRAL  ELEMENT  OF  THE  MINISTRY.  263 

I  think  that  the  analogies  of  parental  government,  in 
a  human  household,  in  which  penalties  are  administered 
in  the  spirit  of  love,  and  for  the  child's  good,  are  far 
nearer  the  truth  than  those  derived  from  the  example 
of  civil  governments  or  artificial  tribunals. 


THE    END. 


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A  journal  well  known  the  country  over  for  high  literary  excellence  and 
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says  :  — 

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after  paaalng  the  cultured  criticism  of  Mr.  William  Ciillen  Bryant,'  whose  portrait 
constitutes  the  lining  frontispiece  of  the  volume.  The  .work  could  have  no  higher 
Indorsement.  Mr.  Hryant's  Introduction  to  the  volume  i-<  a  most  ln-autiful  and  critical 
essay  on  poets  and  poetry,  from  the  days  of  '  the  father  of  English  poetry  '  to  the 

present  time So  other  selection  ire  know  of  i.i  as  raried  and  complete  as  this:  and 

it  must  find  its  way  into  every  library  and  household  where  poetry  is  read  and 
appreciated." 


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PLYMOUTH  PULPIT 

Is  a  weekly  pamphlet  Publication  of  Sermons  preached  by 

HENRY    WARD    BEECHER, 

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them,  the  one  indorsed  by  ME.  BEECUER'S  approval  as  correct,  and  sanctioned  by  his 
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ami  I/reservation,  and  it  is  cheap,  within  the  reach  of  all.  The  publishers  have  also 
responded  to  the  demand  for  a  continued  insertion  of  the  Prayers  before  and  after 
the  Sermon,  as  among  the  most  spiritually  profitable  of  MR.  BEECHER'S  ministra- 
tions. Besides  this,  the  Scriptural  lesson  and  hymns  sung  (Plymouth  Collection) 
are  indicated,  thus  making  a  complete  record  of  one  service  of  "Plymouth  Church 
for  each  Sunday. 

CRITICAL    OPINIONS. 

BRITISH.  AMERICAN. 

"  They  are  magnificent  discourses.     I  "  We  certainly  find  in  these  sermons  a 

have  often  taken   occasion  to   say  that  great  doal  which  we  can  eontMfenUoasly 

Beecher  is  the  greatest  preacher  that  ever  commend,  and  that  amply  justifies  the 

appeared  in  the  world;  this  judgment  is  exalted  position  which  their  author  holds 

mo.-t  solM'rlv  considered  and  most  deliber-  among   American    preacher*.     I  hey    arc 

aU-ly  pronounced;  his  brilliant  fancv.  his  worthy  of  great  praise  for  the  AnmhneM, 

deep  knowledge  of  human  nature,  his  af-  vigor,  and  eami.-suu'.-s  of  their  style;  lor 

fluent  lammas.'.',  and  the  manr-sldednen  'he  beauty  and  oftentimes  MUprMng  apt- 

ofhiB  noble  inind,  conspire  to  place  him  at  ness  of  thur  illustrations;  for  the  largo 

the  head  of   all  Christian    speakers."—  amount  of  consolatory  and   stimulating 

REV.  DR.  PARKER,  in  The  Pulpit  Analyst  thought  embodied  in  them,  anil  for  'ho 

(.Article  "  Ai>  CLKRUM  ").  force  and  skill  with  which  religious  con- 
siderations are  made   to  bear  upon  the 

"These  corrected  Sermons  of  perhaps  most  common  transactions  of  life.    — Bib- 

the  greatest  of  living  preachers,  —  a  man  liotheca  Sacra,  Andover,  Ma.>s. 
whose  heart  is  as  warm  an,i  catholic  as 


combine  fidelity  to  Scriptural  truth,  great  ft   '  init  •irUes^rom  e'lrne-t 
^^^^^^&^^^r^^^ 

*eUnTe"  ^Br&O^eHPlteiZ1"™"  exercises^  w"w  and  potent  anrmmu,^! 

sense.   -  Bnttsh  Quarterly  Review .  An,,   ,u,   rpaclu.,    .,   g££  tn;lt  orilin;irv 

"They  are  without  equal  among  the  pub-  preachers  fail  to  touch."  —  Philadelphia 

lished  s'ermons  of  the  day.     Everywhere  Inqi 

we  find  ourselves  in  the  hands  of  a  man  of  Mr.  Beecher  "  by  his  genius,  and  with- 

high  and  noble  impulses,  of  thorough  fear-  out  any  direct  effort,  has  more  influence 

of  broad  anil  generous  sympa-  upon  the  ministerial  profession  than  all 

thies,  who  has  consecrated  all  his  wealth  the  theological  seminaries  combined.  The 

of  intelligence  ami  heart  to  the  sen-ice  of  discourses  are  rich  in  all  that  makes  re- 

preaching  the  Gospel. "  —  Literary  World,  ligious    literature    valuable."  —  Chicago 

London.  Evening  Journal. 


Vol.  I.,  No.  1.  of   PLYMOUTH   Prxprr    was   issuedfx  September  26,  1868      Each 
Fb/ume  contains  twenty  six  numbers,  being  one  sermon  each  week  for  six  months. 
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VOLUME    I. 


1.  The  Duty  of  using  One's  Life  for  Others. 

2.  The  God  of  Comfort. 

3.  The  Nubility  of  Confession. 

4.  Self-Control  Possible  to  All. 

5.  1'ilate  ami  his  Modem  Imitators. 

6.  The  Strong  to  Bear  with  the  Weak. 

7.  Growth  in  the  Knowledge  of  God. 

8.  Contentment  in  all  Things. 

9.  Abhorrence  of  Evil. 

10.  Privileges  of  the  Christian. 

Ex.  No.   'i  he  Family  as  an  American  In- 
stitution. 

11.  The  Love  of  Money. 

12.  Divine  Influence  on  the  Human  Soul. 


13.  Moral  Affinity  the  Ground  of  Unity. 

14.  The  Value  of  "Deep  Feelings. 

15.  Works  Meet  for  Repentance. 
Iti.  Malign  Spiritual  Influences. 

17.  'I  he  Old  and  the  New. 

18.  The  Midden  Christ. 

lit.  Well-Wishing  not  Weil-Doing. 
•jo.  sphere  of  the  Christian  Minister. 

21.  Sutlering,  the  Measure  of  Worth. 

22.  The  Victory  of  Hope  in  Sorrow. 

23.  The  Crime  of  degrading  Men. 

24.  Self-Conceit  in  Morals. 

25.  Morality  the  Basis  of  Piety. 

26.  The  Trinity. 


VOLUME   II. 


1.  The  Way  of  Coming  to  Christ. 

2.  Conduct,  the  Index  of  Feeling. 

3.  The  Sympathy  of  Christ. 

4.  Retribution  and  Reformation. 
8.  Counting  the  Coot. 

6.  Scope  and  Function  of  the  Christian 

Life. 

7.  Human  Ideas  of  God. 

8.  The  Graciousness  of  Christ.. 

9.  The  Evils  of  Anxious  Forethought, 

10.  The  Beauty  of  Moral  Qualities. 

11.  The  Problem  of  Joy  and  Suffering  in 

Life. 

12.  The  Apostolic  Theory  of  Preaching. 

13.  Right  and  Wrong  Way  of  giving  Pleas- 

ure. 


14.  The  Perfect  Manhood. 

15.  Dissimulating  Love. 

16.  The  Door. 

17.  Moral  Theory  of  Civil  Life. 

18.  Peaccablene'ss. 
1(1.  Soul-Drifting. 
•20.  The  Hidden  Life. 

21.  Discouragements     and    Comforts    of 

Christian  Life. 
~2'2.  Hindrance*  in  ( 'hristian  Development. 

23.  Loving  and  Hating. 

24.  Authority  of  Right  over  Wrong. 

25.  The  Power  of  Love. 

26.  The  Preciousness  of  Christ. 


VOLUME    III. 


Watchfulness. 

Paul  and  Demetrius. 

Consolations  of  the  Sufferings  of  Christ. 

Treasure  that  cannot  be  Stolen. 

Bearing  but  not  Overborne, 

The  Holy  Spirit, 

Ideal  Standards  of  Duty. 

Faults. 

The  Comforting  God. 

The  Name  above  every  Name. 

National  I'nity. 

Social  Obstacles  to  Religion. 

Christ,  the  Deliverer. 


14.  The  God  of  Pity. 

15.  Sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Ifi.  Inheritance  of  the  Meek. 

17.  Memorials  of  Divine  Mercy. 
H.  The  Victorious  I'ower  of  Faith. 

19.  The  Peace  of  God. 

20.  Coming  to  One's  Self. 

21.  Fragments  of  Instruction. 

22.  The  Substance  of  Christianity. 

23.  Spiritual  Blindness. 

24.  Perfect  Peace. 

'25.  Preparation  for  Death. 
26.  Fidelity  to  Conviction. 


11 


VOLUME    IV, 


1.  Borrowing  Trouble. 
•i.  Witnessing  for  Christ. 

3.  Desiring  and  Choosing. 

4.  Spiritual  Stumbling-blocks. 

5.  Beauty. 

6.  All  Hail. 

7.  .Night  and  Darkness. 

8.  The  True  Economy  of  Living 

9.  Law  of  Hereditary  Influence. 

10.  '1  he  True  Religion. 

11.  The  Ideal  of  Christian  Experience. 

12.  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

13.  Sympathy  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 


14.  Conflicts  of  the  Christian  Life. 

15.  Earthlv  Immortality. 

lt>.  Merchant  Clerks  of  our  Cities. 

17.  '1  hf  Moral  Constitution  of  Man. 

In.  Follow  thou  uie. 

1!).  War. 

•20.  Patience. 

•_>1.  My  Yoke  is  Easy. 

•a.  Fiery  Darts. 

•2:1.  Testimony  against  Evil. 

•24.  Danger  of  'tampering  with  Sin. 

•25.  'I  he  Christian  Life  a  new  Life. 

26.  Conceit. 


VOLUME    V. 


1.  The  Growth  of  Christ  in  Us. 

2.  Sin's  Recompense. 

3.  The  Sufficiency  of  Jesus. 

4.  God's  Love  Specific  and  Personal. 

5.  The  Heavenly  State. 
8.  Future  Punishment. 

7.  'Ihe  Ministration  of  Pain. 

8.  Selfish  Morality. 

9.  Importance  of  "Little  Things. 

10.  The  Training  of  Children. 

11.  Watching  with  Christ. 

12.  The  '1  endencies  of  American  Progress. 
1:1.  'I  he  Higher  Spiritual  Life. 

14.  The  Ground  of  Salvation. 


15.  Individual  Responsibility. 

16.  The  Era  of  Joy. 

17.  Intensity  of  Spirit. 

Is.  Man's  Will  and  God's  Love. 
l!i.  Making  Otnen  Happy. 
•JO.  The  Power  of  Humble  Fidelity. 
21.  A  Pica  for  Good  Works. 
•22.  '1  he  Harmony  of  Justice  and  Love. 
•23.  Love,  the  Common  Law  of  the  Uni- 
verse. 
•_'4.  Self-Care,  and  Care  for  Others. 

25.  The  True  Heroism  of  Labor. 

26.  Ignorance  and  Helplessness  in  Prayer. 


VOLUME    VI. 


1.  God's  Disinterestedness. 

2.  The  Liberty  of  the  Gospel. 

3.  Love-Service. 

4.  Social  Principles  in  Religion. 

5.  The  Faith  of  Love. 

6.  Special  Divine  Providence. 

7.  The  Law  of  Benevolence. 

8.  Ages  to  Come. 

9.  Two  Revelations. 

10.  God's  Workmanship  in  Man. 

11.  The  Name  cf  Jesus. 

12.  The  Lesson  from  Paris. 

13.  Suspended  Moral  Conviction. 


1 14.  Truthfulness. 

15.  Heart-Conviction. 

16.  The  Glory  of  Jehovah. 

17.  Soul-Building. 

18.  Religious  Fervor. 

Id.  A  Safe  Guide  for  Toung  Men. 

20.  '1  he  Heart-Power  of  the  Gospel. 

21.  The  Lord's  Prayer. 

22.  Remnants. 

2:i.  'Ihe  New  Birth. 

'24.  Working  out  our  own  Salvation. 

25.  The  Preacher's  Commission. 

26.  The  Privilege  of  Working. 


VOLUME    VII. 


1.  The  Central  Principle  of  Character.  14. 

2.  Unprofitable  Servants.  15. 

3.  The  Reward  of  Loving.  16. 

4.  Cause  and  Cure  of  Corruption  in  Pub-  17. 
JWc  Affairs.  18. 

5. Working  with  God. 

6.  Lessons  from  theVNwt  Chicago  Fire.  19. 

7.  Sovereignly  and  Permanency  of  Love.  '20. 

8.  Practical  Hindrances  in  Spiritual  Life.  21. 

9.  Relation  of  Phvsical  Causes  to  Spirit-  2-2. 

ual  States.    "  -23. 

10.  Redemption  of  the  Ballot. 

11.  The  Unity  of  Man.  24. 

12.  The  Fruit  of  the  Spirit.  25. 

13.  Measurements  of  Manhood.  '2t>. 


The  Inspiration  of  Scripture. 

Practical  Ethics  for  the  Young. 

The  New  Incarnation. 

"Ihe  Worth  of  Suffering. 

God's    Character,     viewed    through 

Man's  Higher  Hatme. 
Other  Men's  Consciences. 
The  True  Law  of  the  Household. 
Other  Men's  Failings. 
Wait  ing  upon  God. 
Do  ihe  Scriptures  forbid  Women  to 

Preach  •• 
God,  First. 

The  Burning  of  the  Books. 
Prayer  for  Others. 


Yearly  Subscription,  9  3.OO.    See  page  9. 

J.  B.  FORD  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

27  Park  Place,  New  York. 


12 


NEW    HISTORY 

OF 

NEW    YORK    CITY. 


IT  is  somewhat  remarkable  that,  with  all  the  wealth  of  material 
existing,  no  one  has  yet  issued  a  history  of  New  York,  with 
the  numberless  curious  threads  of  causes  and  effects,  patiently  evolved 
out  of  the  mass  of  private  letters  and  documents  which  abound. 
Reliable  accounts  there  are,  based  on  publ'c  documents  and  the 
multitudinous  published  facts  of  days  gone  by ;  but  the  underlying 
story  of  social  and  political  life,  which  always  gives  the  real  motives 
and  impetus  to  the  patent  facts  that  grow  into  history,  has  been 
reserved  for  the  persevering  research  and  facile  pen  of  a  woman  to 
bring  forth. 


The  New  York  Tribune  of  June  17,  1872,  says:  — 

"  Mrs.  M.  J.  Lamb,  an  intelligent  lady,  and  a  ready  and  practised  writer, 
•who  has  earned  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  woman  admitted  to  the 
active  membership  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  has  been  care- 
fully at  work  for  the  past  four  or  five  years,  preparing  an  artistic  and 
comprehensive  history  of  the  Empire  City,  derived  not  only  from  the 
standard  sources,  but  also  very  largely  from  family  archives  of  correspond- 
ence, memoranda,  and  papers  of  various  kinds  to  which  she  has  been 
granted  access,  among  those  whose  fathers  and  mothers  were  closely  iden- 
tified with  the  early  days  of  the  city,  —  particularly  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary period  and  the  earlier  part  of  this  century.  This  book,  which 
promises  most  agreeable  reading  as  well  as  a  gathering  of  authentic 
memorials,  tells  the  whole  story,  from  the  time  of  Hendrik  Hudson  and 
the  "  Half  Moon  "  down  to  the  present  day.  Announced  some  three  years 
ago  by  Messrs.  J.  B.  Ford  &  Co.,  it  has  been  diligently  elaborated  and 
perfected,  and  may  now  be  looked  for  within  a  few  months.  It  will  be  an 
original  and  important  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  day." 


Uni 


